


How to Make a Family

by asherly89



Series: What Makes a Family [2]
Category: Adam Lambert (Musician)
Genre: Adoption, Anal Sex, Children, Depression, M/M, surrogancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-16
Updated: 2012-12-26
Packaged: 2017-11-10 02:03:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 41,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/461015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asherly89/pseuds/asherly89
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to <i>What Makes a Family</i> Landon is three and now that he’s older Adam thinks it’s time for him and Tommy to have another child. Tommy agrees and when they decide to adopt again things don’t work out as well as the first time. After the failed adoption they look into surrogacy which leads them on a new path to becoming parents a second time. Set in early 2019 before Landon’s birthday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Always thanks to my wonderful beta I_glitterz! More notes at the end.

“No!”

“Yes.”

“No!”

“Yes.”

“No!”

“Landon, you can’t go to school naked!” Tommy says to his three year old son who’s standing naked in the middle of his room.

“I don’t want to go to school!” Landon cries to his father.

“Buddy, you have to go. How will you learn to read if you don’t?” Tommy asks the little boy.

“I don’t wanna learn to read! I want to stay here wif you and Da and play music!” Landon says back.

Tommy smiles at the thought of them having a family band, but quickly goes back to the task at hand, “Landon Ronald Ratliff-Lambert, you better get dressed right now or no ice cream tonight.”

Landon gives his father his best puppy dog eyes and pouting lip which always makes Tommy melt, but Tommy holds on to what little resistance he has. “No Landon, get dressed...now!”

Landon sighs and makes a huge production of going to the dresser and getting out his underwear, socks, shirt, and pants. He sighs again when he starts to put on his underwear one leg at a time, then pulls his shirt over his head before slowly pulling on his pants.

“What would you like for breakfast?” Tommy asks once he sees Landon is dressed.

“I don’t care.” Landon says with a cold tone.

Tommy shakes his head at the little boy. He knows that Landon is upset about starting school, but by the time they get in the car he won’t be, so he doesn’t take Landon's answer to heart.

“Ok, I guess frog legs and worms it is,” Tommy jokes as he walks out of Landon’s room.

“Nooo!!! Daddy!” Landon yells after his father, running to catch up with him. When he does, he wraps his arms around Tommy’s legs.

Tommy laughs and picks up his son to swing him around and hugs him close, “Then what do you want to eat?”

“Waffles wif lot of syrup!” Landon says happily.

Tommy smiles and kisses the boy’s cheek and sets him down, “Waffles it is. Go see if Da wants some, too.”

Tommy watches Landon run off to his and Adam’s room before going into the kitchen to make breakfast for his family.

* * *

Adam is in bed and listens to the sound of feet shuffling through the halls of the house. He’s been awake for a few minutes and knows that Tommy probably had to fight Landon to put clothes on. He smiles as he thinks of Landon fighting his father about putting on clothes. If Landon had his way, he’d be naked 24/7. He hears small feet running into the room and pretends to be asleep.

“Da, wake up...Da!” Landon says, shaking Adam’s arm.

Adam tries not to smile while Landon’s trying to wake him up, but he ends up laughing and rolls over to grab Landon from his spot. Landon’s laughing when Adam picks him and pulls him into bed. Adam cuddles his son close and tickles the little boy’s side, making him laugh harder.

“Da...stop! Da!” Landon squeakles.

Adam tickles him a little more then lets him free himself from his hold. Landon moves so he can be on his side looking at his father.

“Daddy is makin’ waffles!” Landon says happily.

“He is?! Well we better get to the kitchen before he eats them all!” Adam says back to his son. He gets up from bed and runs around to the other side, picking up Landon and swinging him around.

Landon laughs as Adam swings him to and fro. Adam sets him down and he runs off screaming down the hall to the kitchen.

Tommy hears Landon’s yell from the kitchen and he braces for the force of Landon’s impact. Landon runs, still yelling, into the kitchen and runs right into the back of Tommy’s legs with a small “oof”.

“Hey, is Da up?” Tommy asks the little boy.

“Yes, he said you would eat all the waffles. I don’t want you to eat all of them!” Landon answers.

Tommy laughs, “I haven’t even started making them. You’re Da is lying.”

Landon’s eyes go wide, “But Da says not to lie, it’s bad and I will get a timeout if I lie! Does that mean Da will be getting a timeout?”

Tommy smirks, “I think so, buddy. You should go tell him he’s got a timeout.”

Tommy hears Landon’s little feet running out of the kitchen and into the bathroom where Adam is probably brushing his teeth and fixing his hair before he comes to the kitchen.

“Da, Daddy says you have a timeout for lying!” Landon exclaims from the doorway of the bathroom.

“I do?” Adam says back after he spits the toothpaste foam from his mouth.

“Yes, so you have to go sit in the corner and think ‘bout what you did,” Landon says back to him.

Adam chuckles because Landon had said to Adam what he says to the little boy when he has to go to timeout.

“No toys, no talking, and if you get up from your spot, the time starts over,” Landon explains further.

Adam shakes his head, playing along with Landon, “But Landon, I don’t want to go to timeout!”

“No whining, mister! The longer you complain, the longer it takes to get out of timeout,” Landon says and tries to push Adam out of the bathroom and over to the timeout spot.

Adam laughs and starts to move to the timeout spot, which is really just a small chair in the corner of the living room. He moves to sit on the chair, but Landon stops him.

“No, do not sit there, that’s my chair! You sit on the floor!” Landon says.

Adam moves to sit cross legged on the floor and Landon gets the little timer to get it set for Adam’s timeout.

“Now you sit here for...um...how old are you?” Landon asks.

Adam laughs, “Too old buddy, how about five minutes?”

Landon nods in agreement and moves the dial to five, “When the timer goes off timeout is over, but no getting up before the timer goes off. If you do, time starts over.”

Adam chuckles, “Ok, five minutes.”

Landon runs off to the kitchen, leaving Adam in the living room, “Daddy, Da is in timeout for lying. Are the waffles done?”

Tommy turns around to look at Landon, “Da’s in timeout? Is he going to stay there?”

“Yes, now where are my waffles?” Landon says back.

Tommy grabs Landon’s plate, “Come on, sit at the table. I’m going to check on Da while you eat.”

Landon nods, not really paying attention to Tommy. Tommy leaves the kitchen and finds Adam sitting on the floor next to the timer that is ticking away.

“Morning, baby,” Tommy says and moves over to Adam.

Adam looks up and smiles, “Hey, babe.”

Tommy leans over and kisses Adam. Adam kisses him back and pulls him down, so that Tommy is kneeling in front of him. He pulls Tommy to him as they move from their kiss, making the man have to move closer.

“I hear you’re in timeout,” Tommy says once they’re comfortable together.

Adam nods, “Yea...I lied, but what I don’t know about.”

Tommy smirks, “I think it was something to do with me eating all the waffles.”

Adam chuckles, “That’s what this is all about?”

Tommy laughs with him, “Yes, I’m sorry for getting you in trouble.”

Adam pulls Tommy close and kisses him. The timer goes off to end Adam’s timeout and they pull apart.

“Time for breakfast,” Tommy says and stands up. He helps Adam up and they walk into the kitchen where Landon is at the table eating the last of his waffle.

“My timeout is over. I’m sorry I lied,” Adam says to Landon and bends down to kiss his forehead.

“I hope you learned your lesson,” Landon says with his mouth full.

“No talking with your mouth full,” Tommy says as he walks over to the two plates that are his and Adam’s breakfast.

“Sorwy,” Landon says after he swallowed what was in his mouth.

Tommy smiles at him and sits to eat his food. Adam and Tommy talk to Landon while they finish breakfast and when they’re finished they put their dishes into the sink for Adam to do while Tommy takes Landon to school.

“I don’t want to go!” Landon yells at Tommy when Tommy tries to get his socks and shoes on the boy’s feet.

Tommy sighs and goes for Landon’s foot again, “You have to go, buddy.”

“I don’t want to!” Landon yells, making his face red.

“I know you don’t, but you have to...it’s...it’s the law,” Tommy fibs. If he can get Landon to school on time, it’ll be a miracle.

“No, no, noooo!” Landon cries and his eyes fill with tears. Tommy can see the start of a tantrum coming on. He hates when Landon starts to yell and cry, but he knows that he can’t control what Landon’s feeling.

“Ok, calm down...it’s okay, buddy...come on, it’s alright,” Tommy says, trying to calm his son down.

Landon cries harder before Adam walks in, “What’s going on?”

“Meltdown about getting ready for school,” Tommy says over Landon’s crying.

Adam takes Landon into his arms and cuddles his close. Landon tries to break free, but Adam keeps a tight hold on him. Adam hums softly and Landon slowly calms from hysterics to sniffles. He puts his head down on Adam’s shoulder as Adam rubs his back while he still hums.

Tommy watches the exchange feeling sad that he can’t calm Landon down as well as Adam. Even though Adam has been in Landon’s life since he was born, it was Tommy who had first adopted Landon and wanted him. Adam was just Tommy’s friend when Landon first came into their lives, he wasn’t suppose to be anything more then that. But times changed and Adam and Tommy became a couple which prompted Adam to adopt Landon as well and now they were a family, but he still felt that he should be able to calm Landon down better than Adam.

“There see, buddy, there’s nothing to be mad about...now let Daddy put on your socks and shoes and you two can be off to school,” Adam softly says to Landon as he puts him down again.

Tommy quickly gets Landon’s socks and shoes on with little fuss. He and Landon say goodbye to Adam with hugs and kisses as they run to the car. Tommy gets Landon buckled into this seat and then starts off to school.

Both are quiet as the drive to school is made. Tommy turns the radio on and presses the CD button to play whatever CD Adam left in the car from the previous day. It was Adele’s latest album and one of the only albums that all three of them liked. Tommy listens to Landon quietly sing along as they make their way through the busy morning traffic. It makes Tommy smile that his son loves music as much as he and Adam do.

When they get to the parking lot of Landon’s school, Landon groans and it makes Tommy aware that another tantrum may come. He gets Landon out of the car and grabs Landon backpack from the backseat before they walk to Landon’s class.

“What are you going to do today in class?” Tommy asks, trying to make small talk with Landon.

“I don’t care,” Landon replies.

“Are you going to make a picture for Da and me?” Tommy asks. One of Landon’s favorite things to do is draw a picture for him or Adam.

“I don’t know,” Landon’s quick reply came.

“Are you going to play in the sandbox?” Tommy asks.

“Maybe,” Landon says.

“Are you-” Tommy was about to ask, but was cut off by a little boy yelling to Landon.

“Landon! Come play dinosaur's wif me!” says the little boy.

Landon breaks away from Tommy, running over to the little boy who yelled for him. Tommy smiles at his son and his friend while he makes his way over to the cubby wall to put Landon’s backpack and jacket in Landon’s spot.

“Tommy, can I talk to you for a moment?” asks Landon’s teacher, Stacey, as she walks over to him.

“Huh, oh sure...is something wrong?” Tommy asks back.

“No, no...I was wanted to schedule a parent-teacher meeting with you and Adam. I’m trying to meet with all the parents now that it’s midway through the year. It’s only a progress check in to show you how Landon’s doing,” Stacey explains.

“Oh yeah, no problem...I’ll check with Adam when we’re both free. Can I tell you when I come pick up Landon this afternoon?” Tommy says back.

“That would be great! I’ll talk to you later,” Stacey replies and goes off to talk to a mom that just walked in.

* * *

Tommy gets back home to find Adam in the living room watching _Live with Kelly and Anderson_.

“I missed you,” Adam says when Tommy comes into the room and sits next to him. He puts his arm around the man and pulls him close.

“I was gone twenty minutes,” Tommy replies as he cuddles into Adam.

“Twenty minutes too long,” Adam whines and moves into kiss Tommy.

Tommy moves into Adam and they kiss slowly, taking their time to explore each other’s mouths. Tommy pulls away to catch his breath before he moves back in, going for Adam’s mouth. Adam’s tongue swaps over Tommy’s bottom lip and Tommy opens his mouth to take Adam in. They make out on the couch as the television plays in the background.

Adam pulls away from Tommy and looks into his eyes. He smiles at the man and moves to kiss at his neck. Tommy moans as Adam bites down. Tommy’s favorite thing to do is let Adam bite him. Adam could bite and lick at Tommy for hours if he was allowed to.

Tommy presses closer to Adam and feels that Adam’s as hard as he is. Tommy tries to get a hand in between their bodies to touch himself, but Adam slaps his hand away. Tommy whines and Adam bites down hard on the spot where shoulder and neck meet. Tommy moans again and Adam does it again.

“Please...Adam...need more,” Tommy brokenly pleads.

Adam takes Tommy’s hand in his and presses it to his covered, hard cock. Tommy presses closer and Adam lets out a moan.

“Clothes off,” Adam whispers into Tommy’s ear.

Tommy gets his pants off quickly and helps Adam get their shirts off. He grabs at Adam’s pajama bottoms, which thankfully are drawstring and not tied, and pulls them off quickly. Both are naked and Adam pushes his body onto Tommy.

“Love the feeling of you,” Tommy says. When he’s in his current turned on mood, saying cheesy lines are his specialty.

Adam chuckles, but doesn’t stop humping Tommy. They’re both hard and their cocks are leaking more and more to make the slide of being pressed together easier.

“Close...” Tommy breaths out.

Adam presses harder and he can tell Tommy is close from his breathing. He takes his hand to press at Tommy’s perineum. He knows all of Tommy’s spots and this one is the closest to being in him that gets him off. He presses again and Tommy shutters as he comes.

Tommy’s trying to breath as he watches through blurry eyes Adam stroking himself off and spilling onto Tommy’s stomach. Tommy feels the warmth of Adam’s come on his skin, making his sigh.

Adam’s body sags when his release is finished. He’s kneeling above Tommy’s body on the couch with a hand still on his softening cock. Tommy’s hand comes up and takes Adam’s off of his cock and pulls him down so they’re lying pressed together.

“Mmm, that was a good,” Tommy says to Adam as he rubs Adam’s back.

Adam moves his head and gives Tommy a lazy kiss, “Yea...it was.”

They lay quietly for a few moments as they regain their strength. Tommy speaks first, “We have to set a date for a parent-teacher conference with Stacey.”

“Did Landon do something?” Adam asks concerned.

“No, no she said that it’s a mid year review that she does with all the parents so that they know how their child is doing,” Tommy replies.

Adam sighs in relief, “I’ll check my schedule then.”


	2. Chapter 2

The conference with Landon’s teacher goes well and she tells Adam and Tommy that Landon is a little more advanced in certain subjects than the other kids, but never the less still has a couple of issues that are easy fixes.

“He’s very social, but has a hard time sharing toys with the others. I’ve tried to tell him that he needs to share and he’ll complain and whine when I try to tell him what to do. Both are normal behaviors, so don’t get too upset by it. Just something we still need to work on. Any questions?” Stacey tells them.

Adam and Tommy look at one another before Adam answers, “The whole sharing problem...is that something we can work on at home? Or is it just a matter of time before he gets it?”

Stacey smiles him, “Just a matter of time. I know he’s a good kid, but sometimes being an only child and not having to share with anybody at home is the reason he’s not used to having to share. But it’s nothing too serious to worry about...anymore questions?”

Adam looks to Tommy to see if he has anything to add, but Tommy shakes his head, “No, thank you for time.”

“Oh no, thank you two for coming in. I know you both have busy schedules,” Stacey replies and gets up from her seat to walk them out.

Adam and Tommy say goodbye to Stacey and walk to their car. They don’t talk at first, but then Tommy asks, “Am I a bad father?”

Adam keeps his eyes on the road even though he’s in shock, “What? Tommy, why would you say that? You’re an amazing father!”

“But what Stacey said back there...I mean sure, having to share is a hard thing to do when you’re young and all but...I don’t know. I feel like it’s my fault or something,” Tommy explains.

“No, baby, don’t think that! You’re a great father. We both are...sure we make mistakes, but at the end of the day, you and I are the best parents for Landon,” Adam tells Tommy. This isn’t the first time Tommy’s questioned his parenting.

“But...what if-” Tommy starts, but Adam cuts him off.

“No buts! We are the best parents and you’re not doing anything wrong raising Landon...it’s a small problem that can be fixed easily,” Adam says.

Tommy stays quiet after that. He knows that talking to Adam about this will only result in nothing being fixed.

When they get home, Tommy goes off to the studio to play around on his guitars. Adam sighs sadly because he knows that Tommy’s in a mood and nothing will bring him out of it but his guitars.

Adam goes to the computer to see what he can read up on about sharing. He ends up on a parenting broad where parents are sharing their stories about their children’s problems with not sharing. He finds simple solutions that might work with Landon. He prints out what he wants and goes to find Tommy.

* * *

Two days later, Adam was going to Landon’s class for a “Parent’s Day” picnic that all the parents were invited to. Tommy had a doctor’s appointment, so he was unable to attend.

When Adam arrived he saw Landon in the sandbox playing with a couple of kids in his class. He had a shovel to dig in the sand. One of the other kids that were with him asked if they could use his shovel and Landon jerked away, protecting the shovel with his body as the other kid tried to ask again and take it from Landon.

“Landon, you have to share,” Adam says as he walked over to where Landon was.

Landon saw Adam and dropped the shovel as he ran over to him. He hugged Adam’s legs. Adam picked him up and held him, giving him a kiss on the forehead.

“Da, you’re here! Where’s daddy?” Landon asks, looking around.

“He had to go to the doctor,” Adam replies.

“I hate the doctor,” Landon says back making a disgusted face.

Adam smiles, “Yeah, I know, buddy...hey, can we talk for a minute?”

Landon nodded. Adam put him down on the ground, so that Landon was standing and Adam knelt in front of him, “I saw you in the sandbox and when one of your friends asked to use the shovel, you didn’t let him...you have to share. Do you know what that means?” Adam asks.

Landon nods, “Miss Stacey says that sharing is when I have a toy and if someone wants to play wif it, I have to let them...but I don’t like to let anyone play wif my stuff.”

Adam gives a small shake of his head, “I know it’s hard to share, but sometimes you have to do what you don’t want to...can you try to share with your friends?”

Landon nods, “I’ll try...I promise.”

Adam hugs Landon then lets him go. Landon runs off to play in the sandbox again, leaving Adam to watch him.

“Hi, Adam!” Stacey says happily, walking up to him.

“Hey, Stacey,” Adam says back.

“No Tommy today?” Stacey asks.

“He had a doctor’s appointment, so just me today,” Adam replies.

“Well at least you could come out,” She looks around a moment then leans in to whisper to Adam, “Some of the parents couldn’t make it because they were ‘too busy’ with work.”

Adam looks around too, but he doesn’t really know the parents well enough to see who’s missing.

“Stacey, where are the plates?” yells a lady helping set out the food.

Stacey turns, “In the kitchen...I better go. I’ll see you later, Adam.”

“Later,” Adam replies and watches Stacey leave.

Half an hour later, Adam is sitting in the shade under a tree with his plate of food in his lap and Landon next him, eating from his own plate. Adam sees all the other parents, mostly moms, sitting around the yard with their children and sees a little boy standing by the table, looking around the yard. He asks Landon who it is.

“That’s Ben,” Landon answers back and goes back to eating.

“Do you see his mommy or daddy anywhere?” Adam asks.

Landon looks up briefly, “No.”

“Stay here, I’ll be right back,” Adam tells Landon and places his plate on the ground. He stands up and walks over to Ben.

“Hey, buddy, you want to come eat with Landon and me?” Adam asks the little boy.

Ben smiles brightly, “Okay.”

“I’m Adam, Landon’s daddy,” Adam says, introducing himself.

“My name is Ben,” Ben replies.

Adam and Ben walk over to Landon and sit down. Adam goes back to eating and watches as Ben and Landon start talking to one another. When Landon’s finished eating, he throws his trash away before running off to play on the jungle gym, leaving Adam and Ben alone.

“Ben...what does your mommy do?” Adam asks the boy.

“She works...a lot...so does daddy. He gets home really late at night...like after I go to bed,” Ben replies.

Adam gives him a sad smile, “He does? Do you know where he works?”

Ben shakes his head, “I don’t know...but he’s always working.”

“What about your mommy? Do you know where she works?” Adam asks. He’s starting to slowly figure out why Ben’s parents aren’t at the picnic.

“Um...a big building,” Ben says.

Adam smiles, “Cool...who watches you when mommy and daddy are at work?”

“Helena...she’s mines and James’ nanny,” Ben says back.

“Who’s James?” Adam asks.

“My brother...he is just a baby, so he can’t do big boy stuff. I’m a big boy, so I can do stuff that James can’t,” Ben tells Adam.

Adam smiles, seeing Ben being proud of being a “big boy” and not a baby.

“Do you have a brother?” Ben asks.

Adam smiles, “Yes, his name is Neil and he’s my little brother like James is to you.”

“Sometimes James gets on my nerves. He cries a lot,” Ben says. He seems to be warming up to Adam more.

“Neil use to cry a lot when he was baby, too. But I bet once James is old enough to play with you, you two will have a lot of fun together,” Adam tells Ben.

“When you were my age did your brother cry a lot?” Ben asks. He was warming up to Adam fast.

Adam chuckles, “Yes, but that’s what babies do. They can’t talk like we can, so they cry to let us know that they need something.”

“Do you have a baby?” Ben asks.

Adam’s quiet for a moment, “No.”

“Why?” Ben says back.

“I don’t know.” Adam replies because it’s the truth. He doesn’t know why he and Tommy haven’t talked or thought about having more children.

“Ben, Helena’s here!” Stacey yells over to the little boy.

“Helena!” Ben yells and runs from his spot by Adam.

Adam sees a woman with a baby on her hip and what looks like Ben’s backpack in hand. Ben gives the woman, Helena, a hug and he points over to Adam. Helena looks at Adam and back at Ben before she starts to walk over to him.

Adam stands as Ben and Helena walk to him, “Hi, I’m Adam.”

“Helena, Ben was just telling me how he got to have lunch with you,” Helena replies, shaking Adam’s hand.

Adam smiles, “Yeah, I saw that he didn’t have anyone to eat with so I invited him to sit with my son and me.”

“Which one’s your son?” Helena asks and changes her grip on the baby in her arms.

“Landon...he’s the one that’s...um, well I’m guessing the one in time out right now,” Adam says, looking over at his son who’s sitting against the wall with his arms crossed.

Helena gives a chuckle, “Oh, I’m sure he didn’t do anything wrong. I know Landon and he’s always so nice when I come to pick up Ben. He loves talking to James,” She looks at the baby, James, in her arms as she talks about Landon with him.

Adam smiles, “He does? He doesn’t say anything about him.”

“He loves playing with James if I have to talk to Miss Stacey,” Helena explains.

Adam nods, “Well I’m happy that he helps you out.”

“We should set up a playdate for the boys. Ben would love to have someone else to play with besides me,” Helena tells Adam.

“That would be wonderful!” Adam says back and quickly took out his phone to get Helena’s number.

James started whining and trying to get out of Helena’s arms while she was talking to Adam, but Helena kept a hold on him.

“We should get going, James needs his nap...I’ll call you to set up a day,” Helena says to Adam, trying to keep James from falling out of her arms.

“Okay, nice meeting you,” Adam says back.

“You too... Ben, time to go,” Helena says to Adam and then to Ben who had been playing with another boy not too far from where they were standing.

Adam says goodbye to Ben and James then went to find Stacey to see why Landon had ended up in time out. He found her talking to the teaching assistant, “Excuse me, Stacey...can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Oh, sure...Kate, keep an eye on the kids, thanks...what’s up?” Stacey asks Adam.

“I was wondering why Landon ended up in time out,” Adam replies.

“He was playing in the sandbox and wouldn’t share the truck. When I asked him to please share with the others he refused to, so I told him he needed to take a break from playing for a few minutes. It wasn’t a time out, but more of a breather from playing,” Stacey explains to Adam.

Adam sighs, “I talked to him about sharing earlier I thought he would’ve listened.”

Stacey gives a smile, “It’s okay, Adam, it takes time for kids to understand things sometimes. We just have to make sure he remembers that there are others who want to play with what he has and that he can’t hog the toys.”

Adam nods, “Yeah, yeah I understand...I think it’s time for us to go.”

“Okay, I’ll see you two tomorrow. It was great that you got to come to the picnic today,” Stacey says back.

“I had a great time,” Adam replies back.

Adam went to get Landon’s backpack before he went to get Landon from outside. Once he made sure he had all of Landon’s belongs, he went back to the yard and saw Landon on the jungle gym.

“Landon, time to go!” Adam hollers from the doorway.

Landon jumped off the jungle gym and ran to his father. Adam picked him up and swung him around, “Let’s go home.”

“Yay! Can I have ice cream when we get home?” Landon asks giving Adam his best sad face.

Adam chuckled, “I don’t think daddy would like you to have some before dinner, but tonight after dinner we have some.”

Landon pouts, “I want ice cream now!”

“No whining...you know the rules,” Adam says back.

Landon gave a huge sigh, “Fine.”

Adam chuckles again.

* * *

That night after putting Landon to bed, Tommy and Adam were finally able to talk to each other.

“I met this little boy today in Landon’s class, Ben, and he has a little brother James...he was so cute!” Adam tells Tommy.

“Ben or James?” Tommy asks back.

“James...well Ben too, but James was like maybe seven months old and he reminded me of when Landon was a baby...and...well it got me thinking,” Adam says, trying to gently clue Tommy into what he was thinking.

“Thinking about what?” Tommy asks back.

“Well, you know I’m not busy right now. I mean there’s not much going on with writing the next album and well...I was thinking that maybe we could, you know, start to think about having another kid,” Adam explains.

Tommy was quiet.

Adam took Tommy’s silence as a bad sign, “Please just think about it before you make any final decisions...I mean, you and I both have siblings and I think it would be great to have a sibling for Landon. Helena, Ben’s nanny, was telling me how Landon loves playing with James and-”

Tommy cut Adam off, “Okay.”

“Okay?” Adam says back.

“Okay, let’s have another kid,” Tommy says.

Adam’s face lit up and he pulled Tommy to his body, hugging him tightly. “Baby...oh my God...we’re going to have a baby!”

Tommy chuckled at Adam’s happiest and moved to kiss Adam. Adam kissed him back.


	3. Chapter 3

Two months later, Tommy and Adam were off to meet with the same adoption agency Tommy had used when he adopted Landon. They had a leg up since Tommy had adopted through the agency before, but they were told that it would still take time to do everything.

When they arrived at the building, Tommy took a deep breath. He didn’t think he’d be coming back to the place where his road to fatherhood began.

“You okay?” Adam asks Tommy and takes his head.

“Yeah, fine...just can’t believe I’m back here is all,” Tommy replies.

Adam smiles, “Yeah, I can’t believe I’m here either...but you know because this is something that I didn’t think I would be doing.”

Tommy squeezed Adam’s hand to reassure both of them and they walked to the office. Inside it looked exactly the same as the first visit when Tommy had come four years prior. The same white walls with pictures of happy families with their adopted children, a table set up with magazines, chairs that looked (and were) uncomfortable to sit in, and the reception desk behind the wall with a window to see through.

They walked up to reception and gave their names. The receptionist gave them basic paperwork to fill out while they waited for the caseworker to call them back.

Adam sat down and gave a sigh. He hated paperwork. Tommy looked at the form with Adam and helped him fill out quickly. Soon they were giving it back to the receptionist and were told to wait a few minutes while she went to tell the caseworker they were ready.

“Nervous?” Tommy asks.

Adam nods, “Yeah...I don’t know why. It’s not like we’re going to be getting a baby right away or anything.”

Tommy took his hand again kissed his cheek, “Just relax and be honest.”

“Mr. Lambert, Mr. Ratliff, we’re ready for you,” the receptionist says and opened the door for them to enter the back. She showed them into a office and were met by a man with a shirt and tie.

“Hi, I’m Ryan Kingsley, you’re caseworker,” Ryan says, sticking his hand out.

Adam took it first. “Adam, and this is my husband, Tommy.”

“Nice to meet you both, please have a seat,” Ryan says. He moves around his desk to get back to his seat.

Adam and Tommy sat in front of Ryan’s desk and Ryan behind it, “So...you want to adopt? Sorry that’s a stupid question, of course you want to adopt. I guess what I mean is why would you like to adopt?”

Adam spoke up for both of them, “We have a three and half year old son and we think it’s time to give him a sibling...not just that, but that’s the main reason.”

Ryan nodded and wrote down a note in their file, “I read your pre-meeting forms that you filled out and it says that Tommy adopted through here before. Tell me about your experience Tommy.”

Tommy cleared his throat. He wasn’t the best at talking about things, but he tried to give Ryan as much detail as possible. “It was a great. I mean, Judy, um, that was my caseworker at the time, was great and she helped me through the process. It didn’t take long for her to have me come in and meet a birth mother. Then like four months later, I had a kid...um, I did an open adoption, so we still talk to Landon’s, um, that’s our son, birth mother.”

Ryan took down a note, “Judy, was a great caseworker...you know she retired last month? Anyway, so my next question is open or closed adoption? Tommy, you said that you did open for the last adoption. Would you be open to doing that again?”

Tommy nods, “Yeah...we, um, we’d like to do an open adoption again.”

“Okay, well the next step is to get all the formal paperwork done. That includes tax forms, two reference letters from family or friends, a home study, and parenting education classes. We can get you into an adoption support group to meet other people trying to adopt as well,” Ryan tells the men.

Tommy nods. He remembers all the formal stuff from Landon’s adoption and he wasn’t very excited to do it again. Meanwhile, Adam started to think about the support group. Would they get into a group with other couples who were waiting for years to adopt and see how sad all the couples were when others were getting a child before them or would everyone be happy for eachother no matter the outcome?

Adam tunes back just as Ryan’s finishing up his speech, “...I’m very happy to help you two with your journey. If you have any questions or just need someone to talk to, just call me. I’m here for you.”

“Thanks,” Adam says and stands up from his seat.

Tommy stands as well and they shake Ryan’s hand then walk out of his office. Tommy has the packet of paperwork in one hand and takes Adam’s with the other. Once back in the car, Tommy breaths a sigh of relief.

“You okay? You know if you’re not ready for this we can wait,” Adam says, turning to look at Tommy.

“No, no, I’m fine just...I can’t believe I did this by myself the last time,” Tommy replies.

Adam gives him a smirk, “I can’t believe you did this either.”

Tommy hits Adam’s arm, “Hey...not funny.”

Adam laughs and starts the car to drive away from the building and back home.

* * *

Tommy and Adam make quick work of the paperwork they need. Adam had one of the record company accountants pull his and Tommy’s tax returns from the previous year and they had the current year’s return. Adam asks Scarlett to write one of the letters of recommendation for them, while Tommy got Isaac and Sophie to do the other. They even found a support group of LGBT adoptive parents that fit into their schedule. Now all they needed to do was go to the parenting education classes and to see Ryan again, so the next steps could be taken.

“Adam, if you don’t hurry up, we’re going to be late!” Tommy yells from the front door. It was Wednesday night and that meant it was support group night.

“I’m coming, hold on!” Adam yells back.

“If you’re not here in ten seconds, I’m leaving without you!” Tommy yells. He shouldn’t be yelling at Adam for being late when earlier that day he had been late to pick up Landon from school.

“Adam! I’m leaving!” Tommy says, opening the door.

“You leave without me and you’re on the couch tonight!” Adam yells.

Tommy sighs and waits by the door. The cool night air came through the open door, making Tommy shiver.

Adam finally comes down the hall, pulling on his jacket as he comes to the door, “Ready, you have everything?”

Tommy rolls his eyes, “Yes, now lets go. I don’t want to walk in after the meeting’s started.”

Adam let Tommy go first and he locked up the door. Tommy was in the car waiting for Adam and once Adam got in the driver’s seat, Tommy started moving around in his seat.

“What’s wrong?” Adam asks.

“Nothing.” Tommy replies.

“Well can you stop moving around in your seat? It looks like you have to go to the bathroom or something,” Adam says back. He didn’t mention that it also made him nervous.

Tommy stops, “Sorry.”

The drive was quiet and by the time they got to the center where the group was held, Tommy was ready to burst. He couldn’t place why, but for some reason he was restless tonight. When he got out of the car, he wanted to run around the parking lot, but knew that wouldn’t be appropriate, so instead he took Adam’s hand and walked into the building.

Inside the building, they got to the room and found a few seats open and the meeting hadn’t started yet; Tommy next to a woman and her partner.

“Hi, are you new?” The woman asks.

“Um, no...we’ve been coming the past month,” Tommy replies. He thought that by now people would know who Adam and he was.

“I’m Cindy, this is my wife Diane,” Cindy sas, sticking her hand out.

Tommy shook her hand, “I’m Tommy, and this is my husband, Adam. Adam, meet Cindy and Diane.”

Adam smiles and shook the two hands of the women.

“How long have you been waiting?” Cindy asks.

“We’ve only just started,” Adam replies. Tommy was thankful he didn’t have to talk.

“Oh, well welcome, it’s a long road, but group helps,” Cindy says back.

“Thank you...what about you and Diane, how long have you been waiting?” Adam asks back.

“Almost a year, but this would be our third. We have a ten year old and six year already, but want one more...Do you have any children or will this be your first?” Cindy replies.

Adam smiles and takes his phone out, “We have a three year old son...oh here’s a picture.”

Adam shows the women his phone and on it was his favorite photo of Landon. It was from a month prior when Adam had let Landon play on his phone. Landon had turned the phone camera on and taken a photo of himself. Adam didn’t know that Landon had done it until he was going through his photos on his phone a couple of days later.

“He’s so cute!” Cindy says as she looked at the picture.

Diane leaned over to see the picture as well and smiles, “Wow, very cute.”

“Thank you,” Adam says and puts his phone away.

They talked for a few more minutes then the head of the group stood up, “Hello...welcome everyone. I’m Kelly and I am the leader of the group. I see a couple of new faces so please introduce yourselves.”

Two women stood up and said hello to the group and Kelly asked them a few questions about how their adoption process was going and how they were coping with it. They seemed friendly and were very open about the hardships they were experiencing.

After they were done sharing, Kelly opened the floor to everyone and soon the discussion headed to how couples were being treated by the social workers who would come to the home study. It made Tommy restless and he wanted to leave. He didn’t want to remember the first time he met with a social worker. It wasn’t a fun experience and even though they cleared him to be a parent, it still was hard on him to go through the process.

“Are you okay?” Adam whispers to Tommy and placed a hand on his thigh.

“I...yeah, just...bored,” Tommy lies.

“This is kinda boring, but good information about what to look forward to,” Adam replies. He squeezes Tommy’s thigh and keeps his hand there.

“I’ve been through it before. I know how it is,” Tommy says back.

“Why don’t you share then?” Adam asks back.

Tommy shook his head, “No way, man...I can’ t. I hate talking in front of a bunch of people. You know that.”

Adam lets out a sigh, “Fine...I just thought your story would be something you’d want to share.”

Tommy sat up straighter and looked at Adam, “What I want and not want to share is none of your business.”

Adam took his hand off of Tommy’s thigh and looked away.

The rest of the meeting went quickly and soon Adam and Tommy were on their way home. Adam was lost in his thoughts while Tommy played on his phone the rest of the way home. They didn’t speak to each other when they got back to their house, but went about their night time routine, trying not to get in each other’s way.

Once in bed, Tommy turned onto his side, facing away from Adam. Adam turned onto his side as well and looked at Tommy for a moment. He hated not knowing what was going through Tommy’s head.

“Baby, can we talk?” Adam asks softly not wanting to startle Tommy.

Tommy shrugged. He doesn’t want to talk.

Adam takes a deep breath then lets it out slowly. “I know you’re upset, but I don’t know why...please talk to me.”

Tommy doesn’t say anything and the room stays quiet. Adam thinks that Tommy won’t be saying anything and turns over to try and sleep.

“Hearing those stories tonight took me back to when I first was starting my adoption with Landon. The social worker who had come to do the home study was so...judgemental and I thought for a second she’d deny me the chance to adopt...it was so scary and hearing tonight from others who had the same problem made me feel that maybe...maybe it could happen this time...this time we’ll get denied and...I don’t know what I’ll do if that happens,” Tommy confesses.

Adam doesn’t speak. He moves and takes Tommy into his arms. Tommy doesn’t fight him. He tries to fight it, but soon he’s crying and Adam’s wrapping his arms and legs around him, holding him and keeping him anchored.

“Please...more...just...please...need you...” Tommy stammers.

Adam knows what Tommy’s trying to say and he moves them around so that Tommy’s laying on his front. Adam takes his and Tommy’s clothes off then moves down Tommy’s body licking and biting on his way down.

When he gets to Tommy’s ass he touches it gently then licks a line down the crack. Tommy moans and moves back to try to get at Adam’s mouth. Adam pushes his hips down and keeps him in place.

“No moving, baby,” Adam says and lightly pushes on his hips to make sure he stays there.

“Please, Adam, please...” Tommy begs softly. His voice isn’t more than a whisper.

“Soon, baby, soon...just hold on,” Adam replies. He stretches over to his side table and gets out the lube and condom that are always there.

He moves back and placing the two items close. When he’s back in place behind Tommy, he pushes Tommy’s legs open, so he can kneel in between them. Tommy whines and pushes against Adam’s hands with his hips.

“Stop moving for a minute...just let go and let me take care of you,” Adam whispers to Tommy. He rubs Tommy’s back, soothing the man and helping him calm down.

Once Tommy’s calmed enough, Adam moves down and kisses at his shoulders. He kisses at his neck and Tommy sighs. Tommy moves his head and takes Adam’s lips with his. They kiss slowly, tasting one another. Adam’s pulls from the kiss and goes back to kissing over Tommy’s body.

He makes his way down Tommy’s body to his ass and when he arrives he gets the lube, flavored strawberry, and opens the cap with a pop. He pours it down onto Tommy’s crack, letting it run down. Once he has enough for the moment he moves so he’s laying down over Tommy and his mouth is level with Tommy’s hole.

Adam’s first lick through the lube makes Tommy shutter and let out a broken breathe. Adam does it again, making Tommy moan and beg. Adam gives one last long lick then goes to Tommy’s hole. He licks around the outer ring of it and Tommy bucks up. Adam places his arm over Tommy’s hips to hold them down.

“Please...more, Adam...need more,” Tommy begs.

Adam gets the lube again and pours more over Tommy’s hole. He coats his fingers as well and when he’s finished, he places his lubed fingers at Tommy’s hole. He doesn’t push them in yet, just circles them around. He makes his tongue into a point and presses it into Tommy’s hole.

Tommy gasps out, “Yes,” and tries to push his body, without success, back.

Adam doesn’t let him move and soon he’s pushing in a finger next to his tongue into Tommy. Tommy moans as the first burn of a finger goes through his body. He loves the feeling of it and when Adam moves his finger back out, he tries to follow, knowing he won’t be able to. Adam presses his finger back and takes his tongue away. He moves up so he can drape himself over Tommy’s back while he opens him.

Soon a second finger is added and Tommy lets out whine. Adam shushes him with a kiss. He presses his two fingers deeper, finding Tommy’s prostate and pressing on it. Tommy cries out from the touch.

“Oh God...there...don’t stop,” Tommy says to Adam.

Adam moves his fingers out and presses back in with a third finger. Tommy’s hole is tight around the three fingers, but Adam doesn’t care. He presses in, finding Tommy’s prostate easily this time. He touches it with his fingers trying to get Tommy to moan again. It doesn’t take anything but a small touch to his prostate to get Tommy to moan again and when he does, Adam laps it up.

“Want you in me...not just fingers,” Tommy begs.

“Okay...hold on a minute,” Adam says and kisses Tommy once more.

Adam takes his fingers out of Tommy, making Tommy whine and pout. Adam just shakes his head at how impatient Tommy is, but goes about getting the condom on. He pours lube on his covered dick to make it an easier slide and when he’s ready, he moves back over to Tommy. He takes his dick in hand and slowly pushes the head of it into Tommy. Tommy moans from the intrusion and rides out the pain.

Adam pushes the rest of his dick in, making himself bottom out. Once he’s fully in Tommy, he pulls the small man up, so he’s sitting on Adam’s thighs as Adam kneels on the bed. He wraps his arms around Tommy’s chest, keeping Tommy close. Tommy throws his head back to rest it on Adam’s shoulder.

“You feel so good, baby,” Adam says and rolls his hips, making Tommy groan when the head of Adam’s dick rubs at his prostate.

Adam slowly moves in Tommy, not pulling out. It’s slow getting Tommy off like this, but Adam knows this is what Tommy needs. He needs to feel Adam, to know that nothing bad will happen with Adam there.

“I need to touch...please...let me touch,” Tommy says into Adam’s ear.

“Go ahead,” Adam replies.

Tommy’s hand flies to his leaking dick and he strokes himself quickly. Adam barely moves his hips, letting his dick touch Tommy’s prostate with each small move. Tommy’s crying out soon after he starts stroking himself and the next moment Adam’s laying him out on the bed. He stays in Tommy as the man lays boneless on the bed. Adam uses the new angle so he can pull out then push back in and soon he’s shooting off as well.

Adam lays on Tommy as he regains his strength. When he does, he pulls out of Tommy and he hears Tommy whine from the lost. Adam moves to the bathroom to clean himself up, then comes back into the room and cleans Tommy up. He throws the washcloth toward the bathroom not caring where it lands, then gets back in bed. He gets the blankets around himself and Tommy. He takes the small man into his arms and kisses him.

Tommy cuddles as close to Adam as possible, wanting to feel him. Adam kisses him on the forehead and holds him close.

“Thank you,” Tommy whispers and closes his eyes, falling asleep quickly.


	4. Chapter 4

Landon’s fourth birthday came quickly and with no word from the adoption agency. Adam and Tommy spent most of their time just focusing on Landon. Landon had his birthday in the backyard where it was decorated in a _Yo Gabba Gabba_ theme. It wasn’t Tommy’s choice, but Landon loved the show, so he couldn’t say no. Also if the weather would be warm enough, the kids would be able to get into the pool which was always a hit.

Ben was invited along with his little brother, James. Adam had made sure Ben was able to come because he wanted Landon to have a friend there as well as his friend’s kids. Adam didn’t know any of the other kids too well from Landon’s class, but when he asked who Landon wanted to invited, Landon had named the other ten kids in his class, making Adam smile and write down their names so they could be given their invitations.

The day of the party Adam was running around with his mom, Leila, getting the last of the decorations up while Tommy wrapped the last of Landon’s gifts.

“Mom, can you help me with this sign?” Adam asked, holding up the ‘Happy Birthday’ sign with the whole _Yo Gabba Gabba_ gang on it.

“Just a minute, honey,” Leila replied and placed the stack of plates on the table.

She took one side and placed it on the wall while Adam grabbed the other side and placed it where he was. He tacked it in, then took Leila’s side and tacked it in as well. He stood back looking to see if it was straight, which of course it wasn’t.

“Can you bring up the left side some more?” Adam said, directing his mom to help move the side up.

“Here?” Leila asked.

“Just a little more up...right there,” Adam said.

Leila pinned the sign again, “Better?”

Adam smiled, “Yes, thanks mom.”

“No problem, honey,” Leila said and went back setting up the table.

“Da! Da! Can you come help me?” Landon yelled from his room.

“Coming!” Adam yelled back.

He walked into Landon’s room to find his son’s clothes all over his bed, “What happened?” Adam asked.

“I can’t find anything to wear!” Landon cried.

“Buddy, you’ve got a bunch of clothes to wear. Why don’t you just wear some swim trunks and a t-shirt?” Adam replied, looking at all of his sons clothes.

“I don’t want to do that! I want to look nice!” Landon replied.

Adam sighed. Landon got his clothing obsession from Adam even if half the time he didn’t want to wear them.

“Ok, how about we put these back and maybe we’ll find something to wear while we put these away,” Adam said, picking up a shirt and folding it.

Landon sighed and started to help his father put his clothes back. As they were along, Adam took a muscle tee tank top and a pair of swim trunks that matched out of the clothes and set them off to the side. When most of the clothes were put away, Landon looked through them and found something to wear.

“I want to wear this!” Landon said holding up a dark blue button down shirt.

“Ok, what should you wear with it?” Adam asked as he put the last of the clothes away.

Landon dug through his pants drawer and pulled out a pair of black jeans, then went to his closet to dig around in there for something else. What he was looking for Adam wasn’t sure, but soon enough Landon was done looking for what he needed and he smiled.

“This is the most prefectest outfit!” Landon said.

Adam looked over his son’s choices and smiled. Landon had paired the button down and jeans with a black vest, bowtie, and fedora.

“Do you want help?” Adam asked.

“I can do it myself!” Landon said and started unbuttoning the shirt.

Adam watched his son then moved over to him, “Here let me help with the shirt...hmm, on second thought maybe we should iron the shirt first. It is a little wrinkled.”

“Can I iron?” Landon asked Adam.

Adam chuckled, “Not yet, buddy.”

Landon’s shoulder slumped.

“How about you get the rest of your clothes on while I iron this, then you can come down and get your shirt?” Adam said back.

“Okay...hey, da...can I open my presents after I get dressed?” Landon asked hopefully.

Adam thought a moment, “Maybe one...if you’re daddy thinks it’s okay.”

“Daddy!” Landon yelled, running to Adam and Tommy’s room.

Adam went down to the laundry room and took the iron out. He plugged it in and let it warm up while he got the ironing board ready. When the iron was hot enough, he started ironing the small shirt.

“Adam! Adam, oh there you are, honey. A Helena, Ben, and James are here. I told Helena that the party didn’t start for another hour, but she said she knew that, but the boys needed to get out of their house,” Leila told Adam as he ironed.

“Let them in. I’m sure Helena can help you,” Adam replied.

“Alright,” Leila replied and walked back out of the room.

Adam finished ironing quickly and went into the living room to say hi to Helena and the boys before he went back to give Landon his shirt.

“Hey guys, how’s it going?” Adam asked when he walked into the room.

“Adam!” Ben yelled and ran to the man, hugging him around the legs.

“Hey buddy, how’s it going?” Adam replied and rubbed the little boy’s back.

“I love Muno! Can I have a Muno hat?!” Ben asked, looking up at Adam.

“Sure, buddy no problem. Mom, can you help Ben get his Muno hat?” Adam asked.

Leila took the party hats from their places, but didn’t know who Muno was. Thankfully when she asked Ben which one Muno was he pointed out the correct hat.

“I have to give Landon his shirt. I’ll be right back,” Adam said and made a quick exit.

He went upstairs to Landon’s room, but Landon wasn’t there, so he went to his and Tommy’s room where he knew Landon had ran off to. That’s where he found Tommy and Landon on the floor at the foot of the bed surrounded by the presents Tommy and Adam had gotten Landon.

“Can I open my presents now?!” Landon asked Adam.

Adam smiled, “I said you could open one. You can, whatever one you want, but after, no whining about not getting to open the rest. Also Ben is here, so please get your shirt on.”

Landon picked a big box and tore the wrapping off quickly. The box had a picture of a kid on a motorcycle.

“A motorcycle!” Landon yelled and hugged the box.

Adam and Tommy laughed.

“Thank you!” Landon said and hugged Tommy, then Adam.

“You’re welcome,” Adam replied as he hugged Landon close.

“Can I play wif my motorcycle now?” Landon asked his parents.

Tommy looked at Adam and Adam shook his head ‘no.’

“We have to set it up first and that could take a while, so later...oh, Ben’s here,” Adam told Landon.

“BEN! And James, too? James came, too, right?” Landon asked excited again and seeming to forget about his motorcycle for the time being.

Adam chuckled, “Yes, both of them are here.”

Landon ran out of the room without saying anything, but Adam and Tommy heard him yell Ben’s name as he ran down the hall.

“We’re in for a long day,” Tommy said as he finished putting away the wrapping paper.

“Yes, but the good news is that my dad is coming and we won’t have to put the motorcycle together,” Adam replied.

Tommy smiled, “Thank god!”

* * *

The party was in full swing when Neil arrived with his wife and daughter, Emily and Kate.

“Dude, what’s with all the little people?” Neil asked his brother.

“Landon’s friends from school,” Adam replied.

“Daddy, pool!” Kate said from her mother’s arms.

“Ok, sweetie, we’ll go in just hold on a minute,” Neil said to the little girl.

“Pool! Pool!” Kate cried and tried to get out Emily’s arms.

“Just go. We’ll talk later,” Adam said.

Neil took Kate out of Emily’s arms and took off to the pool where some of the others were.

“She’s got him wrapped around her little finger,” Adam said to Emily.

“Yes she does...where’s the birthday boy?” Emily asked.

Adam looked around, but didn’t spot Landon, “I don’t know. He’s probably in the house showing his friends the little motorcycle we got him.”

“You got him a motorcycle?! Isn’t he a little young to having one?” Emily asked.

Adam laughed, “Not a real one! One of those little fisher price ones.”

Emily laughed, “Oh, I thought for sure you and Tommy had gone off the deep end with giving Landon his birthday present.”

As the party wore on Adam and Tommy let the kids do what they wanted. Pool time was cut when it was time to eat and have cake. The cake was in the shape of a boombox that looked just like DJ Lance’s and had little action figures of the _Yo Gabba Gabba_ gang were around it.

Landon was never a big fan of being sung Happy Birthday to, so when everyone was going to sing to him, Adam picked him up and held him.

While the guests ate cake Adam announced a surprise, “Hello, hey...hi, so we have a VERY special birthday show. Everyone say hello to DJ Lance, Muno, Foofa, Brobee, Toodee, and Plex!”

The cast of _Yo Gabba Gabba_ walked out and the crowds cheered. Landon was in awe the whole time as the characters put on a show. After the show, the characters stayed and took pictures with everyone. Landon was in heaven when he got to meet Brobee and got to hug him.

“You my favorite!” Landon said to the big green monster.

Brobee danced in response.

“My friend, Ben likes you, too, but I like you more!” Landon told Brobee.

Brobee moved to hug Landon and Landon hugged him back.

“Landon, do you want your picture with Brobee?” Tommy asked, coming up to his son.

“Yes!” Landon squealed.

Tommy got out his iphone and took a picture of his son and the green monster.

“What do you say to Brobee and everyone for coming to your birthday?” Tommy asked Landon.

“Thank you!” Landon said.

Brobee danced again and Landon danced with him.

Tommy turned away from his son and looked for Adam. He didn’t see him in the yard, so he made his way to the house. On the way, Isaac and Sophie stopped him to say goodbye.

“We have to go. Sam is asleep and Sophie’s back is hurting. We’ll see you soon,” Isaac explained to Tommy. Seeing Sophie pregnant for the third time made Tommy somewhat unhappy that he and Adam couldn’t have kids as easily as their friends.

Tommy nodded, “See you soon.”

Tommy hugged Isaac as best he could with Sam, Isaac and Sophie’s two year old son, asleep in his arms. He watched the family leave then went back to finding Adam. He found him in the dining room on the house phone. He walked up to the man and stood there as Adam talked.

“Yes...ok, yeah we’ll be there...Oh my god I can’t believe it...no, no I know...yeah, thank you for the news...ok, ok we will. Bye,” Adam said into the phone.

“Who was that?” Tommy asked.

Adam had a huge smile, “Ryan...we have a meeting with a birth mother on Tuesday!”

It took Tommy a minute to process what Adam was saying, but when it hit him, he smiled and took Adam into his arms.

“Baby, this is...I can’t believe it! I mean, this is so quick, I just...” Tommy trailed off.

Adam didn’t say anything, but took Tommy’s mouth with his.

“Daddy! Da!” Landon yelled, running into the house.

Adam pulled from Tommy, “We’ll have a private celebration later.”

* * *

After the party was over and all the guests were leaving Adam, Tommy, Leila, and Eber were left cleaning up. Adam and Eber took the outside, while Leila and Tommy took the inside to clean.

“This was a very lively party. I didn’t know Landon had so many friends,” Leila said as she took the trash off the table.

“It was his whole class plus all our family and friend’s kids. I think we had at least 23 kids here, plus at least one parent for each. That’s a lot of people,” Tommy said back. He didn’t want to think about how many people were in his house.

“I saw you and Adam hiding for a while, did it get to be too much?” Leila asked.

“No, no we have a um, meeting...” Tommy trailed off. He didn’t know if Adam wanted his mother to know about the meeting or not.

“A meeting?” Leila replied.

“Um, nothing...just something with the label,” Tommy replied.

Leila smirked, “Tommy Joe, I know you’re lying.”

“I can’t tell you, yet...” Tommy said back.

Luckily he was given an excuse to leave when Adam called him outside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long for this chapter. I was finishing up summer school, then had to move out of the dorms and get all my stuff in storage. But now I have two weeks off before school starts and will have two more chapters up. Cheers.


	5. Chapter 5

On Tuesday after dropping Landon off at school, Adam and Tommy made their way to the agency. They get there with fifteen minutes to spare, so they go to the Starbucks next door to grab coffee before they go meet the potential birth mother. Once in the office, they are quickly taken to a meeting room where Ryan and the birth mother are.

“Adam, Tommy nice to see you again,” Ryan greets the two men.

They shake hands, then turn to the young woman sitting. “This is Christina, Christina, this is Adam and Tommy, the couple you wanted to meet,” Ryan says, introducing the three.

She smiles, “Hi, nice to meet you.”

Ryan explains to the other three that with this meeting they could ask each other questions and answer them if they wanted. They would have an hour to learn more about one another, then after the hour was over Christina would have a private meeting with Ryan while Adam and Tommy were allowed to leave.

Seeing that she is heavily pregnant, Adam asks the how far along she is.

“I’m seven months,” Christina replies.

“Wow, you look like you’re about to pop,” Adam says before his brain catches up with mouth.

Christina laughs, “I know, that’s how I was with my last pregnancy.”

“Last pregnancy?” Tommy asks.

“Oh, I have a two year old daughter,” Christina tells him.

Tommy nods, “So, um, why are you going for adoption for this one?”

Christina face turns sad before she answers, “My boyfriend isn’t in the picture and I can’t take care of two children with my job, so this was the next best thing.”

Adam and Tommy look at her with sadness, “I’m sorry to hear that,” Adam says.

“Whatever, he’s the one missing out on everything,” Christina replies.

Adam gives her a smirk. He leans over to Tommy, “I like her already.”

“Christina, do you have questions for Adam or Tommy?” Ryan asks the woman.

“It said in your profile that you’ll be traveling and stuff, I mean not that it’s a big deal or whatever, but how would that affect our open adoption? I mean if I choose you,” Christina asks.

Adam and Tommy look at one another. Then Adam answers, “Our son is through an open adoption, and we make sure he sees his birth parents once a year. No matter what our schedules are we make sure the meeting is at the same time every year. We’d have it in our schedule.”

Christina nods, “And the baby, she’d know that she has a sister?”

“Sh-she?” Adam replies.

“Yeah, I’m having another girl,” Christina says.

“We’d most definitely tell her about her big sister. The more siblings the better,” Tommy replies.

The rest of the meeting goes well and soon they are saying goodbye to one another.

Out in the car Tommy and Adam are in a fog, not knowing what to think of the meeting.

“Why do I feel like she was about to ask for money right then and there?” Adam asks Tommy.

Tommy shakes his head, “I don’t know, but can we talk about how she has another kid? Like if that was me I would’ve made sure not to get pregnant the second time.”

Adam laughs, “We are so judgemental.”

Tommy chuckles, “Not judgemental, just telling the truth.”

Two weeks go by without a word from Ryan, then one afternoon a phone call. Tommy answers it.

“Hi, Tommy, is Adam with you?” Ryan asks.

“He’s out right now, why what’s up?” Tommy replies.

“Well I have news...Christina, the mother you met, she...I’m sorry, she didn’t pick you guys,” Ryan says.

Tommy sighs sadly, “Oh, it’s okay. Thanks for calling.”

“This isn’t the end Tommy, just the beginning. There are a lot of other mothers out there. You just have to be patient,” Ryan tells Tommy.

“I know, thanks. I’ll tell Adam,” Tommy says back.

That night when Adam arrives home, Tommy hugs him and doesn’t let go, “What’s wrong?” Adam asks.

“Ryan called,” Tommy mumbles into Adam’s chest.

“Ryan called? Why?” Adam asks. He’s got a hopeful look on his face.

“Christina...she didn’t pick us,” Tommy says and stiffs.

“Oh, baby...it’s okay. We’ll be fine. We just didn’t gel with her and that’s fine. We’ll have another meeting with someone better,” Adam says, trying to comfort Tommy.

Tommy gives a small nod, “I know...I just hoping that we’d get a little girl.”

Adam holds Tommy closer, “We will baby...just not right now.”

* * *

A month goes by and three meetings are set up to meet more potential mothers. The first two seem okay, but Tommy knows that they don’t match. The third mother seems great and reminds Tommy a lot of Michelle, Landon’s birth mother, which makes him hope they get picked by her.

Ryan calls two days after the meeting with the third mother. Tommy is the one answering the call just like the first time.

“Hi, Tommy, is Adam there?” Ryan asks. It’s become a habit for Ryan to ask is Adam’s there whenever Tommy answers.

“He’s at the store,” Tommy answers.

“Oh, well if you can wait for him to come home I can call back,” Ryan says.

“No, just tell me...just like ripping a band aid off,” Tommy replies.

“Well I have some news...good news...the mother you met a couple of days ago, Chelsea, she’s picked you and Adam!” Ryan says to Tommy.

Tommy is quiet.

“Tommy, you still there?” Ryan asks, thinking Tommy hung up or fainted.

“Huh, oh yeah, yeah I’m here...oh my God, this is...” Tommy trails off. He’s speechless that someone finally picked him and Adam.

“So, I need you and Adam to come to the agency to sign some more paperwork and we’ll set up a meeting with the mother again,” Ryan told Tommy.

“Ok, yeah, no problem...I’ll, um, I’ll see what Adam’s schedule is and call you to see what works,” Tommy says to Ryan.

“That’s fine...and congrats,” Ryan says and hangs up.

That night Adam and Tommy are in bed talking about the nursery when Tommy stops talking about potential paint colors and goes quiet.

“Tommy, what’s wrong, baby?” Adam asks. He knows when Tommy isn’t paying attention and goes into his head something’s wrong.

“Nothing...nothing, just you know, we’re having a baby...a girl,” Tommy lies.

Adam shakes his head, “You’re lying...what’s wrong.”

Tommy sighs and moves into Adam’s arms. He places his head under Adam’s chin and cuddles close before he speaks, “I...I’m scared...not about having another baby, but what if, what if we don’t get the baby? I mean, what if her mother decides she wants to keep her baby once she sees her...I don’t know what I’ll do.”

Adam pulls Tommy close and holds him tight. He hates that Tommy has these doubts, but he has the same fears.

“No, don’t think that. Everything will be fine. We’re going to get our baby girl and our family will be complete,” Adam tells Tommy. He’s trying to appear strong.

“But you’ve heard the stories at group...so many of them have had the joy of getting ready for their baby to be told the mother changed her mind and kept the baby instead,” Tommy protests.

“Shh, don’t talk about it. Just think of the positive. We’re going to get our daughter and we’re going to watch her and Landon grow up. We’ll be the overprotective parents when she starts to date and when she gets married, we’ll be there to walk her down the aisle. It’s all going to be okay,” Adam says.

Tommy sighs, “Just...”

Adam cuts him off, “No...don’t say it.”

Tommy remains quiet and lets Adam’s hold on him calm him down. He picks up a random pink color and looks at it before setting it down again.

“Better?” Adam asks after a few minutes of watching Tommy look at paint colors.

Tommy nods, “Yeah...thank you.”

“Anytime baby, love you,” Adam replies and kisses Tommy’s head.

* * *

At group that week Adam and Tommy are happy to find out that Cindy and Diane also found out they will be getting their newest child as well. They tell the two men what they know about the baby, which isn’t much but they’re still very happy to finally have a baby coming their way. The end of group is when people are allowed to announce news about their adoptions and Adam is more than ready to jump up in front of the group to tell everyone the happy news, but Tommy isn’t as excited to tell everyone and tries to not have Adam say anything.

“Baby, these people are, are friends now. They’ll be happy to know what’s happening. Please let me tell them...you don’t have to say anything,” Adam pleads with Tommy.

Tommy sighs and shakes his head, “Please, babe, don’t tell them yet...just wait a week.”

Adam’s shoulder slump, “Fine...but next week please let me tell them.”

Tommy agrees and quickly turns to hear Diane telling the group about her and Cindy’s adoption news.

“We got the call on Monday afternoon and the social worker told us what little she knew about our newest, son, Jack. He is a thirty-two week preemie, who has been in the hospital the last three weeks, but he should be getting out in the next couple of weeks. He just needs to gain weight and keep down what he eats before they let him out of the hospital. We’re meeting him on Friday,” Diane tells the group.

Some people smile and ask a couple of questions, but neither Diane or Cindy know the answers yet.

When the group leader, Kelly, asks if anyone else has news, Adam looks at Tommy and goes against Tommy’s wishes to tell the group.

Adam stands even though he can feel Tommy stewing next to him, “Um, hi...so my husband and I got a call on Monday as well and we’re going to be getting a daughter in a couple of months. We met her birth mother a week ago and after our meeting, she told our caseworker that she wanted us to be her baby’s parents! We haven’t told our family or friends yet, but, uh, I can’t wait.”

Adam sits after his speech and Tommy doesn’t turn to look at him or take his hand. Adam knows he’s in trouble.

Kelly finishes the meeting and tells everyone to have a good week. Tommy stands as soon as she’s done and walks right out the door. He gets to the car before he remembers he doesn’t have the keys. He yells in frustration, but he doesn’t want to go back into the building to get the keys from Adam.

He waits by the car for Adam, but he doesn’t see Adam come out anytime the door opens. He sees a few couples come leave and go to their cars, but no one is Adam. He sees Cindy and Diane come out and they come straight to him.

“Tommy...what’s your problem?” Cindy asks straight out.

“What do you mean?” Tommy asks back.

“You running out of the room as soon as the meeting was over...and the fact you look visibly horrified when Adam was telling the group your happy news,” Cindy replies.

Tommy shakes his head, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Tommy...honey, if you want to talk we’re here for you. We want to help you,” Diane says, placing her hand on Tommy’s cheek.

Tommy moves his head look at the building, but doesn’t see anyone leaving out of it. He sighs and looks back at Diane and Cindy.

“I asked Adam not to say anything...I practically pleaded with him, but he went ahead and told everyone anyway,” Tommy tells the two women.

Cindy and Diane look at one another and have a conversation with each other through their eyes before Cindy speaks up, “Tommy, you seem upset that you and Adam are getting a child and you don’t want anyone to know...why?”

“I...I don’t want to jinx it,” Tommy replies.

Cindy places an arm around Tommy and pulls him to her, “Tommy, talking about your adoption to your friends isn’t going to change the fact that a woman hand picked you and your husband, two men, to raise her child. You should be proud of the fact, not stuck on what can happen. Think of the positive, not the negative.”

Tommy sniffs. Her words coming through loud and clear, hitting his heart like a steak going through it.

“You, alright kiddo?” Diane asks.

Tommy nods, not looking up to meet her eyes, “Yeah...yeah.”

Cindy kisses his cheek and takes her arm back, “Now go find your man and give him a hug and apologize. We’ll see you next week.”

“See you,” Tommy says as way of saying goodbye. He turns around to go back to the building, but sees that Adam is coming to the car, so he stays in his place.

“Adam,” Tommy says, but the other man is already getting in the car without saying anything.

Tommy sighs and gets into the car as well, “Adam...can we talk?”

Adam doesn’t say anything and starts the car. He reverses the car and is out of the parking lot with a squeak of the wheels.

Finally Adam speaks to Tommy, “What you did back there...walking out after the meeting like that...I don’t want you to _ever_ do that again. It looked bad in front of everyone and I don’t need someone from the group running to the tabloids saying our relationship is in trouble.”

“But they’re our friends,” Tommy spits back. He hates that he’s mad at him. He should be the one yelling at Adam for telling the group of their upcoming adoption rather than Adam being mad at him.

“Doesn’t mean someone won’t tell on us,” Adam replies.

Tommy sighs, “Adam...I begged you not to say anything. We haven’t even told our families yet, and you get up and tell a room of strangers something personal. I can’t deal with that.”

“They’re not strangers. We’ve been going to the group for three months now. They know us, support us, and are there for us like we’re there for them...what’s your problem with telling them about our adoption?” Adam asks.

“I just don’t want everyone to know right now...I mean we _just_ got the news only two days ago. It’s still new and I want some time to process it before we start telling people,” Tommy says back.

Adam sighs. He knows where Tommy is coming from, but in the end, this child was coming rather Tommy liked it or not, “I’m sorry...I just was so...happy that we’re getting our child and I wanted to tell someone, anyone to make it real. Please...forgive me?”

Tommy looks at Adam and takes his hand from the steering wheel. He kisses it and holds it in his lap, “I forgive you.”

Adam pulls Tommy’s hand to his mouth and kisses the hand, “And I’m sorry for jumping the gun.”


	6. Chapter 6

The next two months are spent getting the nursery ready. They’ve picked out a pink that was light and airy and the furniture was white with the same pink accents. They had a professional decorator come in and help with the setting of the room and the accents that would go well with what they had already picked out. Adam was more into the decorating than Tommy, who prefered to stay in their music room messing around with his guitars.

As the day of the birth of their daughter was approaching Scarlett along with Leila, and Dia planned a baby shower for the two men. They were told to “just show up and be happy and not to complain.”

The day of the shower, Adam and Tommy dressed and got ready for the party at Scarlett’s home. She, Leila, and Dia had chosen Lee and Scarlett’s home for the party because it was the only place that could fit all of Adam and Tommy’s friends and family.

Adam, Tommy, and Landon arrived to the party and saw most of their friends and their kids were there. Landon immediately ran off to go play with the other children.

“Adam, Tommy!” Scarlett greets the men from across the yard.

They make their way to the woman who is standing with Carmit, Sophie, Emily, Leila, and Dia and hug her before they get attacked by everyone else wanting to greet and congratulate them on the new baby.

“Do you have a name yet?” Carmit asks.

“We do, but we’re not telling,” Adam replies. Tommy smirks because he knows that Adam wants to tell everyone.

“Oh, not even a hint?” Carmit pouts.

“No hints,” Tommy says and smiles at how the woman crosses her arms, pouting like she’s a little child.

“Uncle Tommy, watch!” Riff yells and jumps from the treehouse onto the grass.

“Wow, that’s great buddy!” Tommy says back. He hates heights and seeing the boy jump from the tree house almost gave him a heart attack.

“Tommy!” Lisa, his sister, greets and pulls into a hug.

“Hey, Lisa,” Tommy greets back.

“I brought all of the girls’ old clothes for you and Adam to go through. People told me I was crazy for keeping them, but I knew one day they’d come in handy,” Lisa tells Tommy.

“Thanks,” Tommy replies.

“Baby, come here, Lee and Scarlett have a special performance for us,” Adam calls his husband.

Tommy goes over to Adam and the taller man wraps his arm around Tommy’s shoulders. Scarlett and Lee start the song and the melody is beautiful. When Scarlett starts to sing, Tommy and Adam get tears in their eyes. Scarlett gets a tear in her eye as well and when the song ends, she gets up and wraps both men in her arms.

“Thank you,” Adam whispers to the woman.

She wipes her eyes, “Oh, baby, thank you for sharing this with us.”

Adam hugs her again, then moves to hug Lee.

“Congratulations,” Lee says, pulling from Adam.

The party moves along with lunch, guess the baby food, and baby gift bingo. Tommy and Adam are in a sea of pink by the time the gifts are all opened. They have clothes, toys, pacifiers, blankets, and bottles that are all pink and white with flowers, ladybugs, and anything that is remotely girly.

“I don’t think having a daughter is going to be fun anymore,” Tommy whispers to Adam.

Adam chuckles, “Stop it...just because you don’t like pink doesn’t mean we have to not let our daughter not like it.”

Tommy huffs, “I didn’t say I didn’t like pink...I just think this is a little excessive.”

Adam laughs, “Baby, get use to it.”

“Yeah, Tommy you think this is bad, you should see Harmony’s room,” Scarlett comments about her and Lee’s five year old daughter.

“I love pink!” Harmony exclaims.

“We know,” Riff comments annoyed and rolls his eyes.

After the gifts were opened and baby gift bingo is finished with Carmit as the winner, Adam and Tommy take the gifts out to the car. They fill the trunk up before moving to the back seat, which gets full quickly, they have to get someone to help bring the rest of the gifts back to their house.

“I’ll do it. I should help you two wash the blankets and clothes,” Dia says and starts taking the gifts to her car.

“Mom, we don’t need you to help us wash anything. We know what to do,” Tommy replies.

“Don’t argue with her. Just let her be happy that she has a new grandchild coming,” Adam says to Tommy.

“Fine, but you get to listen to her talk about how and when to wash the socks,” Tommy comments back.

Adam just laughs and kisses Tommy’s forehead before walking away to help Dia put the last of the gifts in her car.

Once the gifts were put in the cars Adam, Tommy, and Dia head back to the backyard and have cake with the rest of the guests. The cake was actually cupcakes that were frosted and placed together to look like a big cake. Adam made sure that Tommy got a cupcake that had a lot of pink just to bug him.

Tommy didn’t take that too lightly and took some of the frosting off his cupcake and rubbed onto Adam’s face. Adam was in a shock for a second, then took the frosting off his cupcake and did the same to Tommy. They ended up with the frosting all over themselves and cupcake crumbs stuck in their hair.

“Daddy, Da you’re not s’pose to play wif your food!” Landon yells at his fathers.

“Daddy was the one who started it,” Adam replies to his son.

The party worn down after everyone had their fill of cake and soon were leaving. Adam and Tommy said goodbye to people as they left while Leila and Dia helped clean up.

“Call us as soon as you hear she’s in labor. We want to be there to meet her,” Isaac tells both of them.

“We will,” Tommy replies and hugs his friend again.

“I want to meet her as soon as possible,” Isaac says.

“We know, we know,” Tommy says back and rolls his eyes.

Isaac smacks a kiss to Tommy’s cheek and leaves with his family.

Landon passes out on the couch while his parents are saying goodbyes. Once everyone is gone Tommy and Adam decide it’s time to go home as well.

“I’ll meet you there in about an hour. I’m going to stay here and help clean up,” Dia says to the two men.

“Dia, it’s alright we’ve got from here. You can go,” Scarlett tells the woman.

“Are you sure?” Dia asks.

“Positive, now go,” Scarlett replies.

Dia smiles and says her goodbyes and leaves with Adam and Tommy.

Once home Adam and Dia start taking in the gifts while Tommy goes to put Landon in his bed.

“Mmm, da-daddy...” Landon sleepily says.

“Go back to sleep, baby,” Tommy quietly replies.

Landon snuggles into his bed before he speaks again, “I want to name my sissy...Hailey.”

Tommy smiles and kisses his son’s forehead, “I like that name, too.”

He leaves and shuts the door leaving it open just enough so that they can hear if Landon wakes.

Walking into the laundry room, Tommy finds Adam and his mother cutting off the tags of all the clothes and putting them into the washer.

“Hey, sweetie, come help us,” Dia says and hands the scissors she’s holding over to Tommy.

Tommy moves to the pile of clothes and starts cutting the tags off. Every so often he holds up a piece of clothing and looks at it before throwing it into the washer.

“What are you so fascinated by?” Adam asks when he notices Tommy looking at a pink onesie.

Tommy smiles and throws the onesie in then answers, “How small everything is. I can’t believe how small babies are, it’s crazy.”

Adam smiles and leans over to kiss Tommy’s head. He loves that his husband can still be amazed at things even though he’s been through having a baby before.

“Tommy, Adam, I went into the nursery, but didn’t see a dresser,” Dia says to the two men.

“Oh yeah, it’s being shipped right now...it was on backorder or something,” Adam replies. He had tuned the decorator out when she was talking about the furniture placement.

“Well then we’ll just use a basket for the clothes right now, but once it’s here, make sure you put everything in the dresser,” Dia says.

Tommy rolls his eyes. He can’t think of how he survived having his mother around when Landon was born.

The three adults get the clothes and blankets in the wash or put them in a pile to be washed and soon everything is ready to go.

“I should get going. I need to get dinner and drive back to Burbank,” Dia says as she puts the last of the to be washed load in a basket.

“Mom, you can eat here. We can order in,” Tommy says.

“Oh no, I have get back to Burbank before it gets any later,” Dia replies.

“Are you sure? We don’t mind the company,” Tommy replies. He doesn’t want his mother to stay, but it feels right in putting up a little argument about her leaving.

“Positive, honey. I don’t want to get home too late...now if you two need anything just call,” Dia says. She grabs her purse from the kitchen counter before she gives a hug and kiss to both Adam and Tommy.

“We will. Love you, mom,” Tommy replies as he walks his mother to door.

“Love you too, honey,” Dia replies and gives Tommy another kiss on the cheek.

Tommy watches his mother get into her car and drive off before he closes the door. He heads back to the kitchen and sees Adam on the phone. Thinking Adam’s ordering dinner, Tommy moves to the cabinet to get dishes out.

“Yes...ok, we’ll be there. Thank you,” Adam says and hangs up. “Baby, we have to go to the hospital, the baby’s coming,” Adam says to Tommy.

“What? But she’s not due for another two weeks!” Tommy says back.

“I know, but that was Ryan and he said that Chelsea went into labor about four hours ago and when she went to the hospital they admitted her,” Adam says and rushes out of the kitchen.

Tommy runs after Adam, “Wait, we have to call everyone and get Landon up...and we don’t even have a bag packed!”

Adam stops at the door and sighs, “I’ll get Landon, we’ll have my mom come pack a bag for us, and we can call everyone from the car.”

Tommy rushes to the car and gets it started as he waits for Adam and Landon. He calls Leila to tell her the plan, then calls his mother. He might as well call her now, so that she doesn’t have drive to the hospital once she’s home.

Adam comes out to the car and gets Landon in his seat, buckling the little boy in it as fast as possible. After getting Landon in the car, Adam gets in and Tommy takes off to the hospital.

“Baby...we’re getting a baby!” Adam says happily.

Tommy smiles at the cheesy line.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! School started up again and the days flew by. Then I moved in with a friend for the time being and well all that fun stuff. Anyway hoped you enjoyed this chapter!


	7. Chapter 7

Once at the hospital, Tommy and Adam rush to the labor and delivery wing. They get to the front desk of the ward where the nurse sitting there tells them that only one of them can go in for the time being. Adam tells Tommy to go and he’ll stay with Landon. Tommy tries to argue, but Adam doesn’t let him. He kisses Tommy quickly and tells him to let him know how things are when he has a chance.

Tommy walks down the hall to the room where Chelsea is. He knocks softly then enters. He smiles when he enters and closes the door behind himself.

“Hey Chelsea,” Tommy says and goes to the girl. He gives her a hug and moves to sit on the chair next to her bed.

“Hi Tommy, where’s Adam?” She asks.

“Out in the waiting room with Landon. They wouldn’t let all of us come in,” Tommy explains.

Chelsea rolls her eyes, “They did that earlier when my sister and husband came by.”

“Your family’s here?” Tommy asks surprised. He remembers Chelsea saying that her family wasn’t supportive of her having a baby.

“Yeah, she’s been around the last few weeks. I think she’s finally warming up to be being pregnant, which doesn’t help since I’m not keeping my baby,” Chelsea says sadly.

Tommy pats her hand, “You’re doing what’s best for the baby, don’t forget that.”

Chelsea nods softly then groans in pain.

“Oh God contraction....fuck, that hurt,” Chelsea says and breathes out once it’s over.

“No epidural?” Tommy asks.

“They wouldn’t give it to me yet, something about not being in labor long enough or something. I’d like to have them try and be in labor for hours with a pain in your stomach that’s like an elephant stomping on your insides,” Chelsea explains.

Tommy gives a small laugh, “I’m sorry...do you want me to see if they’ll come check you out and see if you can have one now?”

Chelsea shakes her head, “No use. The doctor came in maybe ten minutes ago and said I wasn’t ready.”

Tommy sighs, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s...oh...kay, fuck another one,” Chelsea says.

“If your contractions are coming that close together I think you need an epidural. I’m going to get a nurse,” Tommy says and stands from his spot.

“Wait...while you’re out can you get me something to drink? I ran out of ice chips,” Chelsea asks.

“No problem,” Tommy says and leaves the room.

He goes to the nurses station and asks one of them to bring ice chips to Chelsea and to have someone check her out so she can get her epidural. Once finished there he goes to the waiting room and sees Landon playing on Adam’s phone and Adam reading some old magazine.

“Hey, baby,” Tommy greets.

Adam looks up, “Hey how is everything?”

“Fine, she hasn’t gotten an epidural yet, but hopefully will get one soon. Only time will tell when our daughter wants to come,” Tommy tells Adam.

Adam smiles, “Our daughter...I can’t believe we’re having a daughter.”

Tommy smiles, “Me either. Oh did you call everyone?”

Adam shakes his head, “I called Scarlett and told her to let everyone know.”

“We need to call Isaac. I promised him we’d call as soon as we found out we’d be going to the hospital,” Tommy says and takes out his phone.

He quickly calls Isaac and Isaac is too excited to say anything and ends up just yelling in the phone. Tommy laughs and hangs up.

“I’m guessing he’s excited,” Adam comments.

Tommy sits next to Adam and puts his head on his shoulder, “Am I a horrible person if I said I didn’t want everyone here? Like I want it to just be the three of us here when she arrives?”

Adam puts his arm around Tommy’s shoulders, “No baby...but we have to have our family and friends here. They’re the ones who have been supporting us since the first day and they deserve to be here.”

Tommy sighs, “I know...I’m just being my normal want to hide from everything self. When I had Landon I didn’t even let anyone know that he was born until the day before9 I was coming home. My mom bitched me out over the phone about not calling her, but it was nice you know? Not having anyone but Landon and me at the hospital.”

Adam kisses Tommy’s head, “Yeah, that must have been nice.”

The elevator dings and Dia walks out of it with food in her hands.

“I got dinner for everyone. Hospital food can be so bad, so I just picked up food for all of us,” She explains and places the food on the small table where all the magazines are.

“Thanks mom,” Tommy says.

“Landon come have something to eat,” Dia says to the little boy.

He looks up from the game he’s playing, “In a minute...I need to beat this level.”

She laughs, “Okay, but hurry up or your food will get cold.”

* * *

Leila arrives while Tommy’s with Chelsea. She has a bag packed with clothes for the baby as well as toiletries for Tommy and Adam.

“I would’ve been here sooner, but the clothes were still in the washer, so I had to throw them in the dryer and wait for them to finish drying,” Leila explains.

“Did you bring any of the blankets?” Dia asks.

“No they weren’t washed yet. I didn’t want to start another load if all it was going to do was sit there once it was done,” Leila explains.

“We need blankets...I wonder if the gift shop has some,” Dia says.

“Dia, it’s alright. You can take Landon home and do the laundry. I think it’s going to be a long night and there’s no use in having Landon here bored out of his mind,” Adam says.

Having both mothers here was going to be exhausting and Adam didn’t want to deal with both of them the whole night.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to miss my granddaughter's debut,” Dia asks.

“I’m positive. You can sleep in the guest room. I think there’s some clothes still there from when you spent the week at our house,” Adam replies.

“Okay, come on Landon give your dad a hug goodbye and we’ll see him in the morning,” Dia says. She gathers up her purse and the trash left over from dinner.

“Why do I have to say goodbye to Da?” Landon asks.

“You and I are going to go home and sleep,” Dia explains.

“But I want to stay with Da!” Landon whines.

“Come on, buddy, you have to go home with Grammy and tomorrow you can come back and see your sister. Okay?” Adam says to his son. He’s trying to sooth Landon before a meltdown starts.

“But what about Daddy? I want to see Daddy before I go,” Landon says.

“Let me go get him,” Adam says and gets up from his seat.

He asks the nurse at the desk to call Chelsea’s room, so Tommy can come out. She does and a couple of minutes later Tommy’s coming out.

“What’s up?” Tommy asks.

“Your mom is taking Landon home for the night. He won’t leave until he says goodbye to you,” Adam explains.

Tommy smiles and walks over to the waiting room. Landon runs to him and hugs his father’s legs. Tommy picks him up and hold him in his arms.

“Hey, I hear you’re going home,” Tommy says to Landon.

“Grammy is takin’ me,” Landon says back.

“Oh, she is? Well be good for her okay?” Tommy replies.

“I will,” Landon groans.

Tommy kisses Landon’s temple and hugs him once more before he lets him down to the ground. Adam does the same then lets Dia take the little boy with her.

“Call me if anything happens. I’ll have my phone on all night,” Dia explains.

“Yes mom,” Tommy says.

“See you in the morning,” Dia says back.

Once Dia and Landon are gone Tommy lets Adam go back to see Chelsea for a few minutes. He didn’t get a real chance to relax since they’ve arrived and he knows that Isaac should be there any minute, so he wants to see him as well.

“How are you holding up?” Leila asks.

“Better than I thought...just bored mostly,” Tommy replies.

“It is just a waiting game, I was in labor with Neil so long that Eber left and went to work. When he came back I still hadn’t had Neil,” Leila tells Tommy.

Tommy laughs, “Only Neil would make everyone wait for him.”

Leila laughs as well.

Isaac shows up with an apology that he had to wait until the kids were asleep before he could get to the hospital. Tommy waves it off, saying that he doesn’t care.

Adam comes back from Chelsea’s room and tells them that the doctor said that Chelsea isn’t dilating fast enough, but it should be okay as long as the baby’s heart rate stays at where it’s at. If the heart rate drops she’ll be going in for an emergency c-section.

Tommy nods. He remembers how a c-section works. He was in the room when Landon was born. It was scary with all the nurses walking around and the doctor behind a blue curtain opening up Michelle, Landon’s birth mother. But once Landon was born nothing else had mattered.

* * *

Finally at 5 AM the doctor said that Chelsea could start pushing. Tommy and Adam were both in the room holding onto Chelsea’s hands as she pushed.

“Okay that’s good, Chelsea, one more push and the head will be out,” the doctor says.

Chelsea pushed hard as Adam counted to ten, then relaxed.

“Good the head’s out, now we need to get the shoulders,” the doctor says.

“Just a little more and you’re there,” Tommy says, trying to help Chelsea stay motivated.

Chelsea pushes again and the doctor tells her to relax.

“A small push,” the doctor says.

A small push and they hear the first cry of the baby.

“We have a girl!” the doctor exclaims.

Tommy and Adam smile as each other with tears in their eyes.

“Who wants to cut the cord?” the doctor asks.

“You do it,” Tommy says to Adam.

“Are you sure?” Adam asks.

“Yes, now go,” Tommy replies.

Adam takes the scissors from a nurse and cuts where he’s told to. Another nurse takes the baby over to be weighed and cleaned off. Meanwhile Tommy is talking to Chelsea and saying that she did a great job and that he is very proud of her.

“Okay, here’s your daughter, who gets her first?” The nurse who had taken the baby asks.

“Chelsea, do you want to hold her?” Adam asks. He wants to give her a chance to hold her at least once before they take the baby.

“Oh, okay...I didn’t know I’d get a chance,” Chelsea replies.

The nurse gives the baby over to Chelsea’s waiting arms and Chelsea holds her with care. She has tears in her eyes as she looks at the small baby in her arms.

“She’s so small,” Chelsea comments.

“Yeah, yeah she is...um, I’m going to tell everyone she’s here,” Tommy says and leaves the room.

As Tommy walks down the hall, it hits him that he has a daughter. He’s a father again and this time he’s not alone.

“Tommy, is everything alright?” Leila asks when she sees the man.

He tries to say that the baby was born, but can’t get the words out because he starts to cry. Leila puts her arms around him and holds him close.

“Tommy, is the baby okay? Is Chelsea okay? What happened?” Leila asks as she tries to sooth him.

Tommy sniffs and takes a deep breath, trying to get his emotions under control, “Yeah, yeah they’re both okay...I...it just hit me that I have a daughter.”

Leila smiles and wipes his cheeks then kisses his forehead, “Congratulations, what’s her name?”

“Hailey...Hailey Lambert-Ratliff,” Tommy replies.

* * *

By ten AM, the waiting room is filled with friends and family wanting to meet the newest member of their family. Adam and Tommy had taken Landon back to see his sister as soon as they were given the okay.

“Can I let Hailey play with my legos? Can I help you give her a bath? Can I take her to the park?” Landon asks Adam as they wait for the nurse to bring Hailey to the window that looks into the nursery.

Adam laughs, “Hailey’s too small to play with your legos, but you can help give her a bath and we can take her to the park if it’s warm enough.”

“Is that her?” Landon asks and points to the small baby that is being held by a nurse.

“Yep, that’s her,” Adam replies.

Landon presses his face and hands to the glass and looks right at Hailey. The nurse walks over to the window and shows Landon his sister.

“She’s so tiny! Was I small like that when I was born?” Landon asks Adam.

Adam nods, “Yes, but now you’re big.”

“Can I hold her?” Landon asks.

“Later, right now she’s taking a nap,” Adam replies.

“When will she be awake?” Landon asks.

“I don’t know, buddy. Baby’s have to sleep a lot, but when she’s awake you can hold her. Okay?” Adam says back.

“Okay,” Landon replies.

“How about I take you back to the waiting room and you can go with Grammy to the gift shop and get a present for Hailey?” Adam says to his son. He doesn’t want Landon to get bored while he waits in the waiting room.

“Okay!” Landon says back happily and runs down the hall to where his grandma is.

“Don’t run!” Adam yells after him.

* * *

Later Tommy is sitting with Chelsea when a nurse comes in to check on her.

“How are you feeling?” the nurse asks.

“Sore,” Chelsea replies.

The nurse smiles, “If you need anything just call us.”

As the nurse leaves, Tommy rolls his eyes at her. He hates that the nurse was being faker than a spray tan.

“Tommy, don’t roll your eyes,” Chelsea says.

Tommy looks over at her, “How did you...”

“I may be giving you a baby, but that doesn’t mean my mom instinct has left,” Chelsea replies.

Tommy smiles, “You’ll be a great mom some day.”

Chelsea gives him a sad smile back.

“Oh, shit, I’m sorry...I didn’t mean,” Tommy says. He sees that hit a nerve with Chelsea.

“I’m sorry...I just...I keep forgetting that in a day I’ll be leaving the hospital empty handed. It’s not your fault, just something I’ll have to get use to,” Chelsea replies and wiped at her eyes.

Tommy pats her hand. He remembers how upset Michelle was when he left the hospital with Landon and knowing that he’s doing it again makes him sad as well.

A knock on the door pulls Tommy and Chelsea from their thoughts.

“Chelsea, you have visitors,” a nurse says.

Chelsea’s puzzled since she knows her family wouldn’t be coming to visit. They didn’t even help her get to the hospital yesterday when she went into labor. Even though her sister had come to visit her yesterday she still knew that her sister didn’t approve of her pregnancy.

The door opens and in walks Chelsea’s mom and sister, “Hey what are you doing here?” Chelsea asks the two women.

“Your sister told me she came to visit you yesterday. I wanted to come see you,” Chelsea’s mother replies.

“Oh, um, well everything went okay. I had my baby this morning,” Chelsea tells her mother.

“Who’s this?” Chelsea’s mother asks.

“Oh, this is Tommy. He and his husband are adopting the baby,” Chelsea says, introducing the two of them.

“Nice to meet you...hey, I’m gonna go find Adam, maybe get something to eat. See you in a few,” Tommy says to Chelsea and her family. He makes a quick exit.

Tommy finds Adam looking through the window of nursery. He’s standing there looking at Hailey and taking photos of her on his phone.

“What you doing, baby?” Tommy asks, coming behind Adam.

Adam turns and smiles. He bends to give Tommy a kiss and put an arm around his shoulders, so they could look back at their daughter.

“I want to share her with the world, but at the same time keep her a secret,” Adam replies.

Tommy agrees, “Let’s just keep it between the family for now. The world can meet her when she’s out of the hospital.”

“Speaking of getting out of the hospital, the doctor said we could take Hailey home tomorrow morning at the earliest. As long as she’s eating and her blood work comes back normal we can go home,” Adam tells Tommy.

Tommy sighs happily, “Home. Can you believe that we’ll be going home tomorrow as a family of four?”

“Feels likes a dream,” Adam replies.

“Oh there you are, Chelsea is looking for you,” a nurse says to the two men.

“Is everything okay?” Tommy asks.

The nurse shrugged, “I don’t know she just asked for me to get the two of you.”

“Thank you we’ll go now,” Adam says back.

Adam takes his arm from around Tommy and moves to hold his hand as they walk to Chelsea’s room.

Inside Chelsea is sitting up in her bed with her mom and sister standing next to her bed.

“Hi, I’m Adam,” Adam says, going to shake Chelsea’s moms hand.

“Nice to meet you, please have a seat,” the woman says.

Adam sits and moves to grab Tommy. Tommy moves and sits on the chair arm.

“What’s up?” Tommy asks.

Chelsea looks at her mom and tears form in her eyes, “We...um, we talked and my mom said she’d help me out with the baby...I’m so sorry, but I, I want to keep her.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um...so yeah...I'm go into hiding now. I promise to have the next chapter up soon.


	8. Chapter 8

The world stopped turning with the five words Chelsea just said to Adam and Tommy. Tommy gasps and looks at Adam. Adam already has tears coming down his cheeks, making the last of the make-up from yesterday come off.

“I...look, I know that you were both excited to have a daughter, but my mom said that when my sister came to see me yesterday after she left and she went to talk to mom. Mom agreed that she can’t see her first grandchild go, so they came today to tell me that my parents are going to help me out for the first couple months,” Chelsea explains as tears roll down her cheeks.

Tommy’s numb and doesn’t know if he should cry or yell. Adam isn’t hiding his disappointment though. He’s crying and every so often his breath hitches, making him sound like he’s sobbing harder than he really is.

“We...we should call Ryan,” Tommy says softly.

“We already did. He’s on his way,” Chelsea’s mother replies.

“Oh...um, I...” Tommy says. He’s not sure what he should say.

“I need...mom...I need my...mom,” Adam gets out.

Tommy looks at the man and nods, “Come on let’s go out into the hall, baby.”

Tommy gets Adam out of his chair and out of Chelsea’s room as quickly as Adam will let him and once out in the hall, Adam leans on the wall before he moves to floor and cries sitting on the floor.

“Adam, baby, I need to go get your mom, but I don’t want to leave you,” Tommy says softly to Adam.

Adam sniffs, “C-call her.”

Tommy smiles at such a simple idea. He’s in no state to think of something so simple, but Adam could even though he’s balling his eyes out.

Tommy gets his phone and goes quickly through his contacts to get to Leila’s number. He presses call and waits as the phone rings. After three rings Tommy’s about to hang up and call again, but Leila answers.

“Hi Tommy, what’s up?” Leila asks in greeting.

The cheerful way she answers the phone almost makes Tommy start to cry, but he stays strong.

“Can you come to Chelsea’s room...um, Adam...he needs you,” Tommy says.

“Why what’s wrong?” Leila asks now concerned about her son.

“He...we...just please come...quickly and by yourself,” Tommy says.

“Tommy, is Adam with you? Can you give him the phone,” Leila asks.

Tommy hands his phone Adam who’s crying next to him, “M-mom...I...Chelsea...no baby,” Adam babbles into the phone.

Tommy sees Leila walking quickly down the hall still on the phone. When she’s almost to the couple, she ends the call.

“What’s going on? What’s wrong?” She asks looking at Tommy then at Adam.

Tommy takes a deep breath and lets it out before he answers, “Chelsea’s mom and sister came by, they talked and even though Chelsea had said that her family wouldn’t support her having a baby they now will support her....Ch-Chelsea told us just now.”

Tommy’s voice breaks as he tells Leila the last part. She gasps in surprise.

“But...she can’t take Hailey back. Is that legal?” Leila asks.

“She has thirty days from the birth to change her mind,” Tommy replies.

Leila sighs, “I’m so sorry.”

“M-mom...I...I...” Adam trails off before he started to sob again.

Leila moves to sit next to Adam and takes him into her arms. He cries as she tries to soothe them and whispers into his ear.

“I...I’m gonna go tell my mom. I guess I should tell Landon too, but...I don’t know how to,” Tommy says.

Leila looks up from her spot at Tommy who’s standing in front of her, “I’ll help you tell Landon. Just go be with your mom right now, sweetie.”

Tommy nods. He starts to move down the hall, but stops and turns around. He moves back to Adam and Leila and bends over to kiss Adam’s head.

“Love you, baby,” Tommy replies.

* * *

Tommy finds Dia and Landon playing with legos when he gets to the waiting room. Neil is there as well, playing on his phone not paying attention to the others.

“Mom, can...can I talk to you?” Tommy asks.

Dia looks up, “Of course, honey.”

“Um, Neil can you take Landon out of the room for awhile...maybe take him for a walk or something?” Tommy asks his brother in law.

Neil looks up from his phone and seeing that Tommy isn’t happy, agrees quickly and takes Landon out of the room.

“What’s the matter? Did something happen with Hailey? Is she alright?” Dis asks once Landon and Neil are gone.

Tommy tries to tell his mother, but he starts to cry. The tears that hadn’t started now do and soon he’s crying into his mother’s arms much like Adam is doing right now with his own mother.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” Dia asks as she tries to soothe Tommy.

Tommy doesn’t tell her and soon Dia is freaking out. She’s trying to remain strong, but the way that her son is falling apart is making her scared.

Finally Tommy calms himself and he sits up from his spot in his mother’s arms. He sniffs and wipes his nose with his hand, like a child, “Chelsea’s family changed their mind about supporting her and the baby...her mom and sister came today to tell her that they will help her...s-she’s keeping the baby.”

Dia doesn’t say anything, but pulls Tommy back into her arms. Tommy cries into his mother’s shoulder again and tries to draw strength from her. Dis tries to give Tommy the strength he needs.

Someone clears their throat, making Dia and Tommy look to the entrance of the room. Ryan is standing there, looking concerned.

“Hey Tommy...Chelsea called me saying she had something important to tell me, I, um, I’m guessing it’s not happy news for you and Adam,” Ryan says.

Dia gives him a nasty look, “Please...can you just go deal with that girl and leave my son and me alone for a while?”

“Mom please...Hey Ryan, yeah...Chelsea’s k-keeping the baby,” Tommy says sadly.

Ryan sighs, “I’m so sorry Tommy...where’s Adam?”

“He’s outside Chelsea’s room with his mom,” Tommy replies.

“Oh...I should, um, check on him as well. I’ll be back in a few minutes, okay?” Ryan says.

Tommy nods, “Okay,” and watches Ryan walk out of the doorway and down the hall.

* * *

Adam is still in his mother’s arms as she talks softly to him when Ryan walks up to him. Ryan squats down to see Adam.

“Hey, I saw Tommy. He told me what happened. I’m so sorry...I’m here for you if you need anything,” Ryan says and touches Adam arm, trying to give him some more comfort.

Adam sniffs and gives Ryan a small, sad smile, “Thanks.”

Ryan stands up and looks down at Adam, “I have to talk to Chelsea, but when I’m finished I’ll come talk to you and Tommy. Okay?”

“Okay,” Adam replies.

Ryan knocks on Chelsea’s door before he enters and it closes quietly behind him.

“Do you want to go find Tommy? I’m sure he’d like to see you and make sure you’re okay,” Leila suggests.

“Yeah, yeah I should go see how he’s doing,” Adam says. He stands up and helps his mom up as well.

They make their way over to the waiting room where Dia and Tommy are. When Tommy sees Adam he stands up and goes to him. Adam grabs him and holds him close, not wanting to let go. They both are hugging each other hard enough that it’s getting hard to breath, but neither wants to let go.

“Where’s Landon?” Leila asks Dia.

“Neil took him for a walk,” Dia replies.

Leila nods and takes out her phone to let Neil know what’s going on. She quickly texts Neil about the situation and tells him not to say anything to Landon. He replies that he won’t say anything and to let him know when he can bring Landon back up.

Adam and Tommy somehow end up on a couch huddled together with arms and hands joined together. Adam’s arm is around Tommy’s shoulder while Tommy has his arm across Adam’s chest and his head under his chin. They’re whispering to one another, but Leila nor Dia can really make out what they’re saying to one another.

Finally Ryan comes back to the room and both men straighten up, wanting to know what’s going on.

Ryan sits across from them on the table and sighs before he begins, “I talked to Chelsea and more than once asked if she was sure she didn’t want to go through with the adoption. She said that now that her family was going to support her she wanted to keep the baby. Her mom and sister said that they would be there for her. I asked her if she wanted to see you two before everything is over and she said that she didn’t want to, but that you two can see the baby one more time before she’s out of the hospital.”

Adam lets a few tears fall, “We...we can see our baby one more time?”

Ryan gives him a sad smile, “Yeah, you can go see the baby one more time.”

Tommy’s quiet, but stands up with Adam and makes his way to the nursery. Ryan goes with them and explains what’s happening to a nurse and she lets them go into a side room of the nursery. Another nurse brings Hailey, wrapped like a burrito, to them and Adam starts to cry again. Tommy takes the baby from the nurse and moves to sit in one of the rocking chairs.

“Hey, baby, I...I am, was your daddy, but your mother had second thoughts and wants to take you home...you’ll always be my baby girl. I love you and your other daddy loves you, too,” Tommy says to Hailey. He kisses her forehead and touches her cheek one more time.

Adam’s next and he takes the spot on the rocking chair that Tommy had just sat in. He takes Hailey into his arms and holds her close. He rocks slowly in the chair and kisses the little baby over and over again. He doesn’t say anything to her because if he does he’ll break down again.

“Adam...it’s time to go,” Tommy says.

Adam looks up at Tommy, “Please...just a little more.”

Tommy shakes his head, “No, baby, it’s time to give her back.”

Adam chokes on a breath, “Please...I need...”

Tommy sighs and moves to Adam, so he’s kneeling in front of him, “Adam, please don’t do this. We have to go...leave the hospital and go home. We have a son who needs us.”

Adam starting crying. Tommy takes Hailey from Adam and hands her over to the nurse. He moves back to Adam and takes the man in his arms. Adam wraps his arms around Tommy’s waist and cries into his shirt. Tommy rubs a hand up and down Adam’s back, trying to comfort him, but it’s hard when all Tommy wants to do is cry along with him.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Tommy says.

Adam wipes at his face and moves to get up from the rocking chair. They walk out of the room and away from Hailey. It’s hard and Tommy doesn’t know how they made it back to the waiting room where their moms are.

Neil’s back with Landon, playing Legos with him. When Landon sees his father’s, he jumps up and runs over to them. He hugs at both their legs, but Adam’s the one to pick him up.

“Grandma and Grammy told me that Hailey isn’t coming home with us...that, that her mama wants her to live with her...but does that mean that we still get to see her?” Landon asks.

Tommy tries to smile at his son’s question, but can’t, “No buddy. I’m sorry, but we don’t get to see her anymore.”

“But what about my sister? Hailey’s my sister and she’s s’pose to come home wif us,” Landon says back.

Tommy shakes his head, “She’s not coming with us. She’s going to live with her mom. Grandma and Grammy told you that.”

Landon’s eyes fill with tears and he buries his face into Adam’s shoulder. Adam’s arms hold him close and he tries to comfort the little boy. He tries to sing to him, but his voice is shot from crying, so he goes to humming.

“We should go home,” Tommy tells the group.

Leila and Dia nod and start to get everything cleaned up. Neil helps with the Legos and soon everything is put away.

“Do you want me to come over?” Leila asks.

“No...we should be fine. We-we just need time to be together. I’ll call if we need you,” Tommy replies. He doesn’t need anyone else to be at his home right now. Even if it’s his mother in law.

“Okay,” Leila steps closer and whispers in a Tommy’s ear, “If you want me to take Landon for a couple of days just let me know.”

Tommy nods and hugs her. Neil pulls Tommy into a quick hug and says his goodbye and leaves with his mother. Dia is the only one left, so she walks out of the hospital with Tommy, Adam, and Landon. Once at their car she kisses each one then tells them if they need her to call.

Adam puts Landon into his car seat only to have Landon protest that he wants to stay with Adam. Adam doesn’t argue and crawls into the backseat to sit with him. Tommy gets into the driver’s seat and takes off, leaving behind Hailey.

As they get further and further away, Tommy starts to think about their home. They now have a room filled with baby stuff that won’t get used. They have clothes that will never be worn and blankets that will never be snuggled. He doesn’t know if he can walk into the house.

When they arrive, Adam gets Landon out of the car while Tommy goes and opens the door. Once inside Adam puts Landon in the living room and leaves him there while he goes upstairs. Tommy thinks that maybe Adam is going to go get Landon his favorite stuffed animal and blanket, but he never returns.

“Hey, buddy, I’m going to see where Da we okay?” Tommy says to his son.

Landon nods, “Can you put on a movie first?”

Tommy smiles, “Sure.”

He quickly gets a random Disney movie playing on the TV then goes in search of Adam. He checks their room first thinking maybe Adam went to go lay down, but he’s not there. Next he checks the music room and again no Adam. He’s about to go to Landon’s room, but stops when he sees the door to the nursery is open. He moves to the room and see Adam, sitting in the rocking chair, holding a stuffed dog.

Adam’s rocking in the chair and tears are running down his face. He’s got the stuffed dog under his chin and is babbling to himself.

“Adam...” Tommy says softly not wanting to startle him.

Adam looks up at Tommy and a fresh wave of tears come to his eyes. Tommy moves to him and takes Adam into his arms, holding him as close as possible.

“I, I...we didn’t even...get to, to get her h-home,” Adam says to Tommy.

Tommy strokes Adam’s hair, “Shh, I know...”

Adam cries into Tommy’s shirt, making it wet with tears. Tommy somehow gets Adam out of the rocking chair and slowly gets him to walk to their room. He sits Adam down on the side of the bed then goes to knees. He takes off Adam’s shoes and socks, then gets up again to take off Adam’s jacket, shirt, and finally he stands Adam up and gets his jeans off. He leaves Adam’s underwear on for the time being.

“Lay down,” Tommy says and helps Adam get under the covers of their bed. He pulls the comforter over Adam’s chest up to his chin, making sure Adam’s covered all the way. He kisses his forehead and strokes his husband’s hair before he turns to leave.

Adam grabs his hand before he gets too far, “Please...stay.”

Tommy gives him a sad smile, “I have to take care of Landon. I can’t leave him down in the living room by himself for too long.”

Adam sighs, “Please...don’t want to be alone.”

Tommy sighs and looks to the door before he grabs his phone out of his pocket, “Okay, okay, let me call your mom and ask her to come take care of Landon.”

Adam sniffs and gets more comfortable in bed. Tommy quickly asks Leila come over to watch Landon so that Tommy can take care of Adam and she agrees before he'd even finished asking.

“Your mom’s on her way,” Tommy says.

Adam moves over to make room for Tommy and Tommy sits next to him. Adam moves so his head is pillowed on Tommy’s thigh and Tommy’s hand is in his hair. They stay quiet as Tommy tries to give comfort to Adam.

“Tommy...I, I’m sorry...for not being strong,” Adam whispers.

“No...no don’t say that. You can’t be strong all the time,” Tommy replies.

“But I-” Adam tries to protest, but Tommy cuts him off.

“Stop...just stop! You don’t have to be strong. You’re allowed to cry and be upset. We both do! We were suppose to get our daughter and we should have our daughter, but because of one person we don’t,” Tommy says. Anger is coming out with every word.

“I wish we had a daughter,” Adam replies.

Tommy sighs and pushes Adam off of him. Adam tries to grab at him, but Tommy moves from his grip.

“I...I need to get out of here for awhile,” Tommy says and leaves their room.

* * *

Two hours later Tommy is sitting in the music room, guitar in his lap, and he can’t play. Every time he tries his fingers shake and tears form. He can’t cry anymore, but when it comes to playing his guitar he does. He doesn’t know what to do. Music is his outlet, and without it he can’t let go. So he just sits there with his guitar in his hand.

There’s a knock at door and when the door opens there’s Leila with a tray of food.

“I brought you dinner,” She says and places the tray down next to Tommy.

“I’m not hungry,” Tommy replies, not even looking at the food.

“Adam said the same thing, but I’m going to leave your food here anyway,” Leila says. She starts to leave, but Tommy stops here.

“How’s Adam?” Tommy asks.

“He’s...fine. Laying in bed cuddled up with a stuffed dog,” Leila replies.

Tommy nods, “I, um, I should go see him. I just left him there and came in here.”

“He’d like that,” Leila replies.

“Oh...and Landon? How’s he doing?” Tommy asks.

Leila smiles, “Watching a movie with Neil. He hasn’t said much though.”

Tommy sighs, “I feel so bad for him. He was really excited to have a sister and now...”

Leila agrees, “He’ll be fine. He’s young and will bounce back before you know it.”

Tommy gets up and places his guitar in it’s stand before he moves to Leila. He pulls her into a hug and holds on for a few seconds.

“Thank you,” Tommy says softly.

“You don’t have to thank me. I’m your mother and that’s what we’re here for,” Leila replies.

“No, I mean it. Thank you for being here. Taking care of us...I don’t think we’d be able to do it without you,” Tommy says back.

Leila kisses his forehead, “I’ll always be here for you.”

Tommy moves out away from Leila, “I need to go see Adam.”

“Go,” Leila replies.

Tommy moves into his and Adam’s room quietly. He takes off his jeans and shirt leaving himself in only his underwear and moves to the bed. He gets under the covers and moves towards Adam. When he’s close he places his hand on Adam’s back and softly traces patterns with his fingers.

“I’m sorry...about earlier, leaving you here,” Tommy whispers to Adam.

Adam turns over and looks at Tommy. He moves his arm and pulls Tommy towards him. He kisses Tommy’s head and settles with Tommy in his arms. The stuffed dog that Adam was holding is abandoned on the pillow above his head.

“I love you,” Adam says.

Tommy smiles at him, “I love you, too.”


	9. Chapter 9

A month later Adam and Tommy are still upset about how things turned out at the hospital. They had hoped Chelsea would’ve changed her mind, but once it hit thirty days and there was no word from her they knew they weren’t getting Hailey. They haven’t talked much about it with anyone. At night they both lay in bed, not touching or talking. During the day Adam would go into the music room while Tommy takes care of Landon. With school starting again, Tommy doesn’t have much time to think about Adam’s feelings or his for that matter.

On the first day of school, Adam went with Tommy and Landon to meet the new teacher, Miss. Kate. She was just as sweet as Stacy and both men were grateful that she was. Ben was also in Landon’s class which helped when Landon was becoming nervous about leaving Tommy’s side.

“I love you, buddy. Have a good day,” Tommy says to his son and hugs him.

“See you, daddy,” Landon replies.

Adam bends down and hugs Landon as well, “See you later.”

“Bye, Da,” Landon says to him.

Once finished saying goodbye to his parents Landon runs off to see Ben. Adam and Tommy watch the two boys for a few minutes then turn and leave the classroom.

* * *

In the car Adam’s quiet and Tommy’s looking out the window. They haven’t talked much about what’s happened in the last month nor have they talked a lot to each other about anything else. Being together without Landon is weird and uncomfortable. The uncomfortable silence is making Tommy’s skin crawl and he wants out of the car.

“Can you stop moving? I can’t concentrate on the road if you’re moving so much,” Adam says to Tommy.

Tommy hears the anger in Adam voice and it sparks anger in his, “Well if you would drive faster then we’d be home faster and then I can get out of the car and you won’t have to worry about me.”

Adam speeds up, “Is this better?”

The speed he’s going is way too fast for the road and now it’s making Tommy nervous that they’ll get into an accident.

“Slow down, please,” Tommy pleads.

“You’re the one who wants me to go faster and now you’re telling me to go slower? Which is it then? Faster or slower?” Adam replies still driving too fast.

“Just slow down a little...I don’t want to get into an accident,” Tommy says.

Thankfully Adam does slow down and Tommy lets out a long breath. He looks over at Adam and sees that he’s tense and knows better than to say anything more.

Finally home Adam quickly gets out of the car and goes to the house without waiting for Tommy. Tommy gets out of the car and walks after Adam not trying to talk to him.

Inside Adam goes straight to the music room and locks the door behind him. He slides to the floor and hangs his head behind his knees. Tears form in his eyes and he starts to cry. He knows that his attitude towards Tommy has been shitty lately and taking out his frustration about the failed adoption on him isn’t going to help them. He stays there on the floor until he stops crying. After he finds the strength he gets up and leaves the room heading to the bathroom down the hall.

Wiping his face with a damp washcloth, then blowing his nose with a tissue he leaves the bathroom to go find Tommy. He finds his husband in the living room not watching TV, yet it was on.

“Tommy,” Adam says.

Tommy looks up at him.

“Tommy...baby, can we talk?” Adam asks.

Tommy nods. Adam moves to the couch and goes to sit next to Tommy, but thinks better of it and sits at the end of the couch away from the man.

They sit quietly not knowing where to start. Finally Adam gets the courage to speak, “I...I’m sorry about earlier. I shouldn’t take my anger out you...and I know I haven’t been the best husband lately, but our failed adoption has taken a lot out of me. I know you’re hurting too and we should be taking care of each other and I just wanted to say that I’m here for you...and I’m sorry, please forgive me?”

Tommy smiles sadly. He’s trying not to cry, but after Adam’s apology he’s losing the battle with his tears.

“I’m sorry too, for not trying to help you. I can see you’re hurting and I should be there to help, but I’ve been avoiding you because I know how you can get. We both like to be alone and really this time we shouldn’t be...I’m sorry,” Tommy replies.

Adam smiles and a few tears fall down his face, “You have nothing to be sorry for. You were just trying to do what you think I needed. We both were doing what we thought we needed and it wasn’t.”

Tommy smiles and moves to Adam. Adam takes the smaller man into his arms and holds him close. Tommy tries to make himself as small as possible as he sits in Adam’s arms. Being in his husband’s arms again makes Tommy start to cry. He missed being with Adam and being in his arms. He doesn’t want to go through it again.

Adam holds onto Tommy when he hears him sniff. He kisses the top of Tommy’s head and rubs his arm, trying to give him the comfort he knows Tommy needs. After a few minutes Adam moves his hand and tilts Tommy’s chin up. He wipes at the tears tracks then kisses Tommy. Tommy kisses him back and he tries to pour all the emotions from the last month into it.

Adam pulls back and takes a breath. He looks at Tommy and gives him a smile, “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Tommy says back and moves to kiss Adam again.

As they make out on the couch Adam moves them so he’s laying on the couch with Tommy covering him. They’re both hard in their jeans and Adam wants more. He moves his hand from Tommy’s ass to between them and he tries to get his jeans undone. Tommy pulls from their kiss and sits up. He quickly gets his jeans undone and helps Adam get his undone as well.

“I need you...need more,” Tommy says into Adam’s ear and starts to lick and bite as the man’s neck.

Adam moans as Tommy attacks his neck. He gets a hand into Tommy’s pants and strokes his dick through his briefs. Tommy moans and moves his hips to add more friction to his hard dick.

“Want you...need you,” Tommy pants and moves up to get his shirt off. He stands up and pulls his pants and underwear off, letting himself be completely naked in front of Adam who’s still on the couch with his clothes on.

Tommy moves and gets Adam’s shirt off and he pulls at Adam’s pants to get them off as well. Adam wiggles trying to help Tommy get his clothes and soon they’re both naked.

“Bedroom?” Adam asks, looking up at Tommy.

“Won’t make it...need you now,” Tommy says and climbs back on top of Adam.

Adam stretches to the end table and gets the lube, that they keep in the drawer for moments like these, out. He hands it to Tommy who gets it open and pours the lube on his fingers. He reaches around to open himself up, but Adam stops him.

“No...I...I want you to fuck me,” Adam says.

Tommy looks down at him, “Are you sure?”

Adam nods, “Yes, please...just go slow.”

Tommy nods and moves from straddling Adam’s hips to sitting between his legs. Adam rests a leg on top of the couch and the other goes around Tommy’s waist. Tommy moves his fingers between Adam’s cheeks and feels for his opening. When he finds it he touches the hole letting Adam get use to being touched.

When Tommy feels Adam is ready he presses in one fingertip. Adam hisses from the intrusion. As much as he thinks he’s prepared he never is. Tommy waits until Adam gives him a slight nod and pushes the rest of the way in. When Tommy’s finger is in all the way, he leaves it there before he pulls it out again.

“More...need another,” Adam pants out.

Tommy grabs the lube and gets his fingers wet again. He pulls out his first finger so just the tip is in Adam, then when he starts to push in the first finger he adds the second. The burn of two fingers makes Adam moan. Tommy pushes both until they’re in all the way. He waits until Adam tells him he’s ready then he pulls back out. He scissors his fingers a few times, stretching Adam’s hole.

This time when Tommy thinks Adam’s ready he adds a third finger. He lets Adam get use to the fingers, the same as before, before he pushes in. With three fingers Tommy is able to touch Adam better and when he hears Adam cry out he knows he hit the man’s prostate. He brushes at it a few times wanting to hear Adam moan.

“Need you...no more fingers,” Adam whines.

Tommy brushes Adam’s prostate one more then pulls his fingers out. He moves to the end table and finds a lone condom. He returns to his previous position getting the condom on and pouring more lube on it. He grabs Adam’s leg from the top of the couch and places it on his shoulder.

“Ready?” Tommy asks.

Adam nods his answer of yes.

Tommy takes his cock in hand and lines it up with Adam’s hole. He slowly pushes in the head and Adam hisses at the first push. When Tommy’s got the head of his cock in Adam it takes his hand from around his cock and holds onto Adam’s thigh. He lets Adam get use to just the head of his cock before he pushes all the way in and his hips are flush against Adam’s ass.

“So tight, baby,” Tommy moans.

Adam pushes back at Tommy and Tommy pulls out, letting just the tip of his cock stay in Adam. He pushes back in and hears Adam moan. Soon Tommy’s pushing and pulling out quickly. He’s not going to last from the tight heat of Adam’s hole, so he speeds up.

“T-touch yourself,” Tommy says to Adam.

Adam moves his hand from the couch to his leaking cock and strokes himself trying to keep in time with Tommy, but can’t.

Tommy moans and shoots off in the condom first. He pushes into Adam a couple of more times before he pulls out and replaces his cock with his fingers. He moves and takes Adam’s leaking member into his mouth, sucking him down.

Adam cries out and quickly comes in Tommy’s throat. Tommy slowly licks his way up Adam’s cock then pulls off of it. He takes his fingers out of Adam as well and Adam whines.

Tommy moves and lays on top of Adam. Adam wraps his arms around him letting the man regain his breath.

“Love you,” Tommy slurs.

Adam kisses his forehead. He hears Tommy’s breath even out and soon Tommy’s soft snoring fills Adam’s ear. Adam closes his eyes and falls asleep soon after, letting their love making run through his head as he dozes.

* * *

When Adam wakes he’s alone with a blanket over his still naked body. He throws the blanket off and sits up. He hisses at the pain in his ass as he tries to move to get his clothes back on. He gets his underwear and shirt on and takes his pants with him to his and Tommy’s bedroom. He grabs a pair of sweats from the dresser and puts them on.

Next he goes in search of Tommy. He doesn’t hear a guitar, so he doesn’t check the music room. He looks into Landon’s room to see if maybe Tommy was cleaning up in there, but no luck. He moves to the stairs and before he gets down them, he sees the door to the nursery open.

He moves to it and finds Tommy sitting on the floor looking at the room.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Adam asks coming into the room.

Tommy looks up at him, “I haven’t been in here since we came back from the hospital without...without Hailey. I just wanted to see what it was like to be in here.”

“And what’s it like?” Adam asks. He moves to sit down next to Tommy. He sits gingerly next to the man.

“Empty...I hate it being so empty and dead in here,” Tommy replies.

Adam nods, “I know...it’s hard being in here.”

“Adam...I know it might be too soon, but do you want to try again? I’m not one hundred percent sure if I want to try again, but if you do I’ll do it,” Tommy asks.

Adam’s quiet thinking about what Tommy just asked. He’s not sure if he’s wants to go through the waiting and heartbreak again, but on the other hand he wants to have another child.

“I think we should...maybe we can talk to Ryan and see what our options are,” Adam replies.

Tommy moves and lays his head on Adam’s shoulder, “Okay.”


	10. Chapter 10

Getting an appointment with Ryan is a breeze and he’s happy to hear from Adam and Tommy. The day of their appointment Adam is nervous like the first time and he can’t sit still.

“Stop moving,” Tommy says.

“I’m sorry I can’t help it,” Adam replies.

Tommy places his hand on Adam’s moving leg and it stops, “Better?”

“Kinda,” Adam replies.

Adam pulls out his phone and starts to play with. He checks his email, but finds nothing important. He sees if he has any new text messages even though he knows he doesn’t have any and after he’s done he goes on twitter.

“Mr. Lambert, Mr. Ratliff?” the receptionist says.

They both look up and she smiles, “Ryan will see you now.”

They get up from their seats and she buzzes the door open, letting them through to the back of the office. Adam grabs Tommy’s hand and holds it tight as they walk down the hall to Ryan’s office.

Inside the office Ryan is sitting behind his desk and when he sees the two men, he stands with a smile on his face and shakes their hands.

“Hey guys, it’s great to see you two again,” Ryan greets.

Adam gives him a smile, “Yeah, yeah it’s great to see you, too.”

Tommy smiles and doesn’t say anything. He’s too nervous to even talk right now.

They all sit and there’s a moment of silence before Ryan finally decides to start the conversation, “So, I know it’s been a hard time for you guys and I want to say that I’m deeply sorry about what happened. I didn’t think that Chelsea’s mother would change her views of Chelsea’s pregnancy and when I got the call I was in shock...I know it won’t be easy to get over, but we should move on, and find a new mother for you two.”

“No,” Tommy says, looking down at his lap.

“Huh?” Ryan replies.

“No...I don’t want to look for a new mother just to have her change her mind last minute and take her baby away from us. I don’t want to do this,” Tommy says, looking up at Ryan and Adam.

“Baby...what are you talking about? We talked about this. You agreed we get back in the game and get our baby,” Adam says to Tommy.

“I don’t want to go through it again. I don’t want to be waiting for the other shoe to drop. It’s too much...I-I can’t go through with it again,” Tommy replies. He’s got tears forming in his eyes.

Adam wraps his arm around Tommy’s shoulders bringing him into a hug, “Okay, okay...I’m sorry Ryan, but we should go. I’m sorry for wasting your time.”

Ryan nods, “It’s okay. I understand...I’m here when you both are ready to start your adoption process again.”

Adam gets Tommy to stand and he stands with him, “Thank you.”

Ryan sees them out of his office and when they leave Adam thanks him again.

In the car Tommy’s quiet and Adam doesn’t push him into talking. He drives to their home and when they get there Tommy’s out of the car and quickly in the house. Adam follows him seeing Tommy go up the stairs. He thinks maybe Tommy’s going to crawl into bed, but he when he hears a door open and close he goes up to the second floor as well and hears the soft strum of the guitar.

Adam moves to the music room and opens the door. He sees Tommy’s back turned to the door and a guitar in his lap. He moves into the room and stands behind Tommy.

Tommy stops playing his guitar, but doesn’t turn around, “I-I’m sorry. I thought I wanted to do this again, but once we got to the office, I couldn’t do it.”

“It’s okay...we can wait,” Adam replies.

“I...I don’t want to go through an adoption again,” Tommy says.

Adam’s confused. He thought Tommy wanted another child, “What are you talking about? I thought having a second child is what you wanted.”

Tommy takes a deep breath and lets it out, “I do, but I don’t know if I want to go through the adoption agency again.”

Adam’s quiet thinking about what Tommy’s saying, “So, what do you want to do?”

Tommy finally turns around and looks up at Adam, “I’ve been looking up surrogacy and even though it’s expensive and it might take some time I thought it would be the route to go now.”

Adam nods, “What do we have to do?”

Tommy gives a small smile, “It depends on how we want to do it. Would we use the same woman to be the donor and surrogate? Or would we have two different women, one donor and one the surrogate? If we do the second option we’d have to pick a donor, then have her eggs fertilized with our...spunk. After the eggs are fertilized they go into the surrogate and we wait to see if they take. We can put up to three eggs at a time into the surrogate.”

Adam nods along to Tommy’s explanation and when he’s done he smiles, “You’ve really researched this? And this is what you want to do rather than adopt?”

“It’s something to look into,” Tommy replies.

“I’ll think about it. I want to do my own research on the subject and see if it’s really what I want to do,” Adam says.

Tommy nods, “Okay.”

Adam bends down and kisses Tommy’s head, “We’ll talk later.”

* * *

Four days later Adam is up to his eyeballs in research about surrogacy. He had gone to the internet first to get the basics about the subject, then he went to the library. He had checked out a few books on the subject and he had been reading them ever since. When he found a piece of information he liked he write it down in a notebook.

“Da, what you doin’?” Landon asks Adam.

Adam looks up from the book he was reading, “I’m researching.”

“What’s that?” Landon asks.

“It’s when you really like something and want to know more about it, so you read all about it,” Adam replies.

“I wanna research, too!” Landon says.

“And what do you want to research?” Adam asks.

“Um...candy? I love candy!” Landon says.

Adam laughs, “Candy, huh? Hmm, let me look around for stuff about candy and you can research it. Okay?”

“Okay,” Landon replies.

Adam gets his laptop and soon he and Landon are watching clips from _Unwrapped_. Landon enjoys seeing how jawbreakers, lollipops, and tootsie rolls are made.

“Hey can I put the laptop on the floor and you can do it yourself? I need to finish my reading,” Adam asks Landon.

“Okay!” Landon replies. He loves when he’s allowed to use the computer himself.

Adam quickly gets the autoplay on the playlist of _Unwrapped_ going, so that Landon doesn’t have to click anything. He gives the laptop over to his son, then goes back to the book he was reading.

That’s how Tommy finds his family an hour later. Landon is laying on the floor with his chin on his hands as he watches another episode of _Unwrapped_ while Adam is sitting at the desk with his head leaning on his hand as he reads from his book.

“Hey, what are you guys doing?” Tommy asks.

“Research!” Landon exclaims.

“Research? What are you researching?” Tommy asks.

“Candy! Da found a show all about how candy is made! It’s so cool!” Landon tells Tommy.

“Wow that’s really cool, buddy. What have you learned?” Tommy asks.

“There’s these really big machines and they turn around and around and the candy is put into the machines and then the flavor and color is put into the machine. As the machine goes around and around the color and flavor gets mixed in and then the candy is made,” Landon explains.

“Wow, awesome! And what’s Da researching?” Tommy asks.

“I don’t know...Da what are you researching?” Landon asks Adam.

Adam looks at his son and husband, “I’m researching about...babies.”

“Babies? Why?” Landon asks.

“I want to know how they are. I didn’t get to be with you when you were a little baby, so I want to know how it is,” Adam replies.

“Oh, when will we be getting a baby? Is Hailey coming to live with us now?” Landon asks happily.

This is the first time Landon’s asked about the baby that should’ve gotten and it hits Adam hard, but he stays strong and answers Landon’s questions, “I don’t know when we’ll get a baby. It takes a while and I’m sorry, buddy, but Hailey isn’t coming to live with us. She’s going to stay with her mom.”

Landon nods, “Okay...can I go back to my research now?”

“Of course,” Adam replies.

Landon moves back to his position in front of the laptop and starts watching his show again. Tommy watches him for a moment and when he sees that Landon’s attention is back into what he’s watching he moves to Adam. He pushes Adam away from the desk and his book and sits in his lap.

“What are you doing? I was reading,” Adam protests.

“You’ve been reading those books for a days now. What’s so important that you’ve locked yourself in the office and stay in here all day?” Tommy asks.

Adam looks at Landon and makes sure he’s absorbed in what he’s watching before he answers Tommy, “Surrogacy...I wanted to see what goes into it and all the legal stuff. I wanted to make sure we have all the information before we decided to do it.”

Tommy smiles, “Good, that’s good...I’ve been doing some research myself as well.”

“Oh, and?” Adam asks.

“I got a hold of David, Elton’s husband, and he told me what office they went through. He said they’re very discreet and very good at what they do...also he and Elton are using them again right now for their third,” Tommy replies.

Adam smiles, “Have you looked this place up?”

“Yeah I did as soon as I was off the phone with David and from what I see on their website they’re very good at what they do. They have reviews from others who have used them and all of them are positive. They know what they’re doing,” Tommy answers.

“We should go see them then,” Adam says.

“Really?” Tommy asks.

“Yes, really,” Adam replies.

Tommy laughs, “Good, because we have an appointment next Thursday.”

* * *

The first appointment with the surrogate office is just an intake appointment and not much is done at it. The lady who does the intake asks Adam and Tommy questions about their family, jobs, health, and why they chose surrogacy. They answer each question and have questions of their own which are answered clearly and detailed.

After the intake they are given another appointment date to talk to one of the “Journey Coordinator” or JC’s that would start them on their way to choosing the donor and surrogate. As well as getting them appointments to give their sperm over, so that the eggs from the donor could be fertilized.

Tommy’s mood after meeting with the first coordinator had improved dramatically. He was very happy and couldn’t wait to meet with the JC. He had a list of questions ready to go once they met with the JC and was always writing more down. Adam on the other hand was still somewhat unsure about the whole process and didn’t know if he was ready to have a baby that was one half his and one half the donor. Tommy tried hard to ease Adam’s worries, but it only helped a little.

On the day of the meeting with the JC, Adam was a bundle of nerves. He couldn’t believe that he and Tommy were starting on a journey to have a biological child. There were so many questions about the donor and surrogate as well as whose sperm they would use.

When they were in the JC’s, Sarah, office she talked a few minutes to them about what they had gone over at the intake appointment then she opened the floor to their questions.

Tommy asked a few questions about what to look for in a donor and surrogate, and Sarah answered each other with a smile and full explanation on what to expect. Tommy nodded and smiled along with Sarah making it look like he was more than ready to get started on looking for the perfect donor and surrogate.

Adam was still unsure about the process, so once Tommy was done with his questions Adam got his questions in.

“Do we have to pick who’s...um, stuff we use to fertilize the egg?” Adam asks.

Sarah smiles, “No, not at all. You both can go and give your sperm and once we get it to the lab and fertilize the eggs we’ll use one egg with Tommy’s and one with yours. After that it’ll be a waiting game to see which egg, or both, take. I know a lot of male couples who do this and have only one egg take don’t want to find out who the father of their child is and usually if they do find out it’s because they want to have a second child, so they find out who’s child the first one is the other can be the father of the second.”

“So we can both donate?” Adam replies.

“Of course. It’s very common for both men to donate,” Sarah replies.

Adam smiles, “That makes me feel better.”

Sarah smiles as well, “That’s good. Any more questions?”

Adam looks at Tommy, who shakes his head to silently tell Adam that he has nothing else to ask.

“Just one more...when can we start?” Adam says.

Sarah smiles, “Let me get you the donor book.”


	11. Chapter 11

Adam and Tommy took the donor book Sarah had given them home and looked through it for the next two weeks. Adam would tab the profiles he liked, then Tommy would look them over and pick the ones he liked as well as pick new ones for Adam to look at. The process went on until they only had a couple of days before they were to see Sarah again. Finally Adam and Tommy had to sit down and look at the profiles they both liked and narrow down the pool.

“She’s cute,” Adam says, showing Tommy the profile of 321.

Tommy takes the page and looks at her and frowns, “I liked her at first, but now I don’t know. She looks too conservative...maybe pile.”

Adam shook his head. This was the fifth profile Tommy had put into the maybe pile and they were only on the seventh profile.

“Tommy, you can’t keep putting them into the maybe pile. We need to have at least three profiles we really want to look more into before we go see Sarah again,” Adam tells his husband.

“I know, I know, but when I look at all these profiles, I don’t see anyone I want. I thought I did, but now I don’t know,” Tommy replies.

Adam puts the profile page he has in his hand down and moves to take Tommy’s hand, “Baby, don’t think too much about it. Stop looking so hard at each profile and just go with your first instinct.”

Tommy nods, “I can’t help it. With adoption, it’s not you picking the mother, it’s the mother picking you. It’s not this hard.”

Adam nods, “I know it’s hard, but all we need is three potential donors. Three. That’s all.”

Tommy sighs, “Only three?”

“Three,” Adam says again.

“Okay, let me see who we have now,” Tommy says and picks up the page that’s in front of Adam.

After the talk, Tommy and Adam have five profiles they want to look at and get more information about. They mark the pages and put them back into the donor book, so when they go to see Sarah again they have the book in order.

* * *

Going to see Sarah again is quite fun for Adam and Tommy. She gives them the longer profiles of the five donors they want to know more about and tells them other facts about them.

“Donor 423 has been used twice with other couples and both times the eggs took the first time,” Sarah tells them.

Adam nods looks at Donor 423 profile closely. She’s twenty-eight, a PhD student, and an ex-olympic hopeful in running. She has hazel eyes, and dark blonde hair. Adam pictures their child, if a girl, looking just like her and he likes what he sees.

“I want her,” Adam says.

Tommy looks at him, “But we still have three more profiles to go over.”

“No...her, she’s beautiful and smart. She’s healthy and like Sarah said, she’s had her eggs used twice and they took the first time,” Adam explains to Tommy.

“Can we at least look at the other three before we decide for sure this is who we want?” Tommy asks.

Adam sighs and nods, “Okay.”

Adam places the profile of Donor 423 to the side and goes back to looking at the other profiles. He half-heartedly looks at them, but none of them are as good as the profile that caught his eye. Tommy can tell that Adam’s not into the other profiles, so he makes it a quick look at the others.

“Let me look at 423 again,” Tommy says and takes the profile for Adam.

Adam watches as Tommy reads through the profile and sees the small smile that forms as Tommy reads through it. When Tommy’s finished reading, he looks up at Adam and gives him a smile.

“This is her...this is the mother of our child,” Tommy says.

Adam kisses Tommy and when he pulls back comments, “I knew you’d like her.”

Sarah takes the profile from Tommy’s hand and moves to her computer to take down the information she needs from the profile.

“Good news! Donor 423 has two frozen eggs that aren’t on hold for anyone else. We can place a hold on them for the two of you and once we have a surrogate selected we can get started on the next part of your journey. Congratulations, boys!” Sarah says with a huge smile on her face.

Adam and Tommy both smile at Sarah at the good news about their donor.

“Now we have to pick a surrogate. I have a list of available surrogates from you to choose from. They aren’t numbered because you’ll be meeting her once we start the process of the pregnancy. We want you and the surrogate to have a friendly relationship throughout the pregnancy and hopefully after the pregnancy,” Sarah tells them.

“Before we look at the list, can you pick out the ones that will be comfortable with a gay couple? I don’t want to look at a potential surrogate and find out they don’t want to work with us,” Adam asks.

Sarah nods, “Of course...let me see here...well that narrowed it down from 40 to 38.”

Sarah hands the list to Adam and Tommy and they look over it quickly, but don’t read anything from it.

“Would you like to have a couple of weeks to look through the list to pick out the ones that you might want to work with and we’ll do the same process as we did with the donor?” Sarah asks.

“That would be great,” Adam replies.

After scheduling an appointment for two weeks from the day, Adam and Tommy say goodbye to Sarah and leave her office with a new list of women to look over.

* * *

Another week and they’re back with Sarah with three potential surrogates. Sarah gives them more information about each and they soon have it narrowed down to two surrogates. Adam likes one while Tommy likes the other.

“Please Adam, she’s perfect. Stay at home mom of two, healthy, has been a surrogate once before, she doesn’t have any stress in her life other than her kids, so why can’t she be our surrogate?” Tommy tells Adam.

Adam shakes his head, “But baby, this one is better. No prior surrogacy, only has had one child of her own, also a stay at home mother...think about it. Do we want someone who’s been pregnant three times already or someone who’s only be pregnant once?”

Tommy digs his heels in, “Adam, this is the one I want. I let agreed to the donor you wanted, so why can’t you agree to the surrogate I want?”

Adam thinks for a moment and sighs in defeat. Tommy’s right. It’s only fair that Tommy agreed to the donor Adam wanted, so he agrees to Tommy’s choice of surrogate, “Fine, we’ll go with your pick.”

Tommy smiles and quickly give Adam a kiss, “Thank you.”

Giving Sarah the surrogate they wanted off the list, she quickly gets her up on the computer and makes a note that she has been picked.

“Well, looks like we now have two very important people picked out. We have donor 423 as the egg donor, and Jenny as the surrogate. Next step will be the sperm donation. The office will set up the appointment at the donor office and once you guys donate, they will put your donation in a portable freezer and send off to the lab. There, the eggs and sperm will be introduced to each other. The fertilized eggs will then be frozen because we need to get your surrogate’s body ready for the pregnancy. Once the surrogate’s ready, the eggs will be placed into her body. We’ll have to wait about four to six weeks to see if they take. It’ll be a waiting game, but I have faith you guys will be welcoming a new addition or two to your family soon,” Sarah explains.

Adam is in awe. He can’t believe that their journey to becoming parents is on the fast track.

“So the next question is when do you want to donate? Just to warn you, you can’t have any sexual activity for about seventy-two hours before you donate,” Sarah tells them.

“Seventy-two hours?” Tommy asks in disbelief.

“I know it sounds like a long time, but it’s really not. I know it might be hard for both of you, but that’s the rule,” Sarah replies.

Adam is in disbelief as well, “I...um, that’s like three days. I haven’t gone that long without sex of any kind since I discovered jerking off.”

“Adam! Seriously, in front of the lady!” Tommy exclaims.

Adam blushes, “I’m sorry, Sarah. Just my mouth going off before my brain catches up.”

Sarah lets out a laugh, “Quite all right. You’re not the first man to say that in front of me...now, appointment for the sperm donation.”

“Can we do it Monday or Tuesday next week? I don’t want to have to wait all week to have...um, well, you know,” Adam says trailing off.

Sarah smiles, “Of course...let’s see... Monday there is a spot open at ten AM, or two PM. On Tuesday there are two appointments open at eleven thirty AM.”

“Tuesday it is,” Adam replies.

Sarah puts Adam and Tommy down for the Tuesday appointments, “Alright, you two are all set! I’ll call you when we hear from the surrogate.”

“See you soon,” Adam replies.

“Later,” Tommy says.

* * *

Tuesday Adam and Tommy are sitting in the waiting room of the sperm donation office. They are the only ones there, which is a blessing. When they got there they were given a questionnaire to fill out. Adam was restless from not having touched himself nor had sex with Tommy for the last three days. He got through the questionnaire as quickly as he could and returned it to the receptionist.

“Thank you, sir. We’ll call you when the room is ready,” the woman replies.

Adam went to sit back down next to Tommy, who was still working on his questionnaire.

“Almost done?” Adam asks.

“No...I can’t concentrate on it,” Tommy replies.

“Just get through it as quickly as you can. Once you’re done you’ll be able to get into that room and jerk off,” Adam says back.

Tommy sighs and crosses his legs. He’s hard from thinking about the fact that he’ll be able to touch himself soon. He finally finishes the stupid thing and gives it over to the lady behind the desk. She smiles and says the same thing she had said to Adam.

Tommy goes to sit down next to Adam.

“I can’t wait to get off. My balls are about to burst,” Tommy says to Adam.

Adam lets out a small laugh, “I know my balls, too.”

“Mr. Lambert?” A female voice says.

Adam looks and sees a woman standing in an open door. He smiles and looks back at Tommy, “See you when you’re done.”

“See you,” Tommy replies.

Adam gets up from his seat and goes to the woman. She walks him to a room and explains what to do.

“You can take as much time as you want. There are magazine’s in the drawer, or if you want to watch a movie there are those as well. Make sure you ejaculate into the cup. When you’re finished, place the cup into the little box on the wall. We’ll label it and get it to its proper place,” the woman explains.

Adam nods, “Thank you.”

The woman closes the door behind her and Adam’s left by himself. He looks around and sees that the room is very clinical. There’s a chair, covered in that doctor’s room paper they use to cover the exam table, a TV on the wall, a DVD player, a small table next to the chair with a plastic cup for the collection of sperm, and a two drawer cabinet. Adam looks in the cabinet to see what’s inside and he finds both straight and gay porn movies as well as some nude magazines. Adam looks through the porn movies, but none of them are to his liking, so he decides to forgo the movie.

Moving to the chair, Adam sits in it and undoes his belt. He pops the button and unzips his pants next. Adam trails his hand down into his underwear and sighs when his fingers finally touch his dick. He slowly jerks himself off and soon, he’s hard. With his free hand, he grabs the cup off the table. Stroking himself, he lets out a moan and pumps faster. Not having had any sexual pleasure for the last three days is making it easy for him to finish.

Meanwhile, Tommy’s in the room next door and can’t get hard. He was hard when he first had gotten into the room, but now that he’s left alone, he can’t get it up. He tries looking at the nude magazines, but that doesn’t work. If anything, it turns him off even more. He goes through the DVD collection, but like Adam, finds nothing to his liking.

Sighing Tommy takes out his phone and goes through his photos to find the ones of Adam nude. One night back on their tour, they had a night to themselves as Isaac had taken Landon for the night. They had gotten naked and taken photos of one another naked. Tommy and Adam both updated and password protected the photos onto their laptops, but Tommy hadn’t deleted the photos off his phone like Adam had done to his. So now Tommy was looking at naked photos of his husband.

Tommy rubbed himself through his pants, trying to get himself hard, but it wasn’t working. He closed his eyes and pictured Adam naked on the bed like in the photo, but it didn’t work. Sighing again, Tommy thought of calling Adam, but maybe that would be too weird. Going back to the photos, he looked at each one trying to will himself hard, but it didn’t work.

Finally, Tommy gave up and called Adam. He waited as the line rang, but Adam didn’t pick up. Tommy groaned and called Adam again. This time, Adam picked up.

“What’s up, baby?” Adam pants into the phone.

“I...Are you having trouble jerking off?” Tommy asks.

Adam groans out, “N-no. Why, are you?”

Tommy blushes to himself, “Yes.”

“Baby, you and I haven’t touched one another or jerked off in three days. It shouldn’t be so hard to jerk off,” Adam replies.

Tommy sighs, “I know, but once I got into this room, I went soft. It’s like my dick knew that I was going to blow my spunk into a small cup and it didn’t like that idea at all.”

Adam laughs, “Come on, baby, I’ll help...relax, breath in and out...yeah, that’s it. Now undo your belt, then I want you to undo your pants...did you do it?”

“Y-yes,” Tommy replies.

“Okay, now I want you to slowly move your hand down into your underwear...take yourself into your hand and stroke yourself...are you doing it?” Adam asks.

Tommy slowly moves his hand into his underwear and grabs himself. He strokes a couple of times, but he doesn’t get hard, “I...I can’t get hard.”

“Yes you can...just focus on my voice,” Adam says.

Tommy closed his eyes and listens to Adam through the phone.

“Okay, just keep stroking yourself...touch yourself like you like it. You know the little squeeze at the head,” Adam breathes into the phone.

The sound of Adam’s voice is making Tommy slowly get hard. He does what Adam says and soon, he’s half hard.

“How’s it going?” Adam whispers into the phone.

“G-good, ah, really good now,” Tommy replies.

“I want you to move down and play with your balls...pull on them like you, ah, like...” Adam says to Tommy. He’s close now, thinking about Tommy pleasuring himself.

Tommy does what Adam says and he’s now fully hard. He moves back to stroking his now hard dick and listens to Adam’s heavy breathing.

“I’m close...ah, so close...thinking about, ah, you touching yourself while you...oh yeah....while you listen to me,” Adam tells Tommy.

Tommy strokes himself faster. He now has the image of Adam jerking himself off and how his head is probably thrown back, eyes closed, and his mouth open as he breathes heavily thinking of Tommy.

“Adam...I...oh God, thinking of you...you’re so hot...” Tommy trails off as he hears Adam breathing harder.

Adam groans loudly and he’s coming. Somehow, he makes it all into the stupid cup and only a little on his hand.

Tommy is breathing harder now and he heard Adam’s groan from release.

“Adam, talk to me...so close,” Tommy begs and strokes faster.

“Tommy, I can picture you...your dick in your hand. Stroking it like you like with that little twist at the head...making yourself so hard...leaking all over yourself...” Adam says.

Tommy does twist his hand like Adam says he does, and he can feel he’s going to come soon. He speeds up, trying to get his release to come.

“S-so...close,” Tommy gets out.

“Come on, baby, come for me. Make that pretty sex face that you do...come on,” Adam cheers Tommy on.

Tommy comes on as Adam is talking to him. He forgot about the cup and ends up coming all over his hand, but is too dazed to think about it at the moment.

“Okay, baby?” Adam asks.

Tommy nods, but remembers Adam can’t see him, “Y-yeah..fuck! I didn’t get the stupid cup and now I come all over my hand not in it.”

Adam chuckles, “It’s alright baby...just try and clean your hand off with the side of the cup.”

“I have to hang up...I don’t have a free hand,” Tommy replies.

Adam laughs again, “Okay, baby, I’ll see you in the waiting room.”

“See you soon,” Tommy says and hangs up.

He grabs the cup with his clean hand and does what Adam says. Luckily he gets some of his come into the cup and his hand is mostly cleaned off. He uses a tissue to clean his hand the rest of the way off. Finished cleaning his hand the best that he can, he puts his dick back in his pants and straightens his clothes to leave the room.

Tommy blushes as he leaves the room and sees Adam standing in the waiting room for him. He goes over to him and Adam puts an arm around him.

“All right?” Adam asks.

Tommy hides his face in Adam’s shoulder, “Shut up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting closer to the end! Updates might not be happen until after Nov. 18th because I'm doing a show right now and tech/run of the shows are happening. This is only a maybe, not a for sure thing.


	12. Chapter 12

Two months later they get the call that their surrogate, Jenny, is officially pregnant. That night, Adam and Tommy go out to dinner by themselves to celebrate.

“What if we have twins?” Adam asks as they wait for their food.

Tommy gives a small laugh and shakes his head. “I don’t know if I could do it. Having one is hard enough, but two, I don’t know how we’ll do it.”

Adam smiles. “We’d figure it out. We always do.”

As the wine flows, so does the conversation. Adam tells Tommy he hopes they have a girl, so all the stuff they got from the last baby shower doesn’t go to waste. Tommy on the other hand doesn’t care. As long as they have their child, he’s happy.

They get home and fall through the door high off the excitement and maybe a little drunk off the wine from dinner. Adam pulls Tommy toward him and kisses him hard. Tommy returns the kiss and pushes Adam against the wall. He gets his hands under Adam’s jacket and pulls it off. Adam quickly does the same with Tommy’s.

They break apart to get their shirts off and start at each other’s pants. Adam has his hand in Tommy’s pants when someone clears their throat.

“Excuse me, boys, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to go home,” Leila says with a smirk.

Adam blushes and pulls his hand out of Tommy’s pants. “Sorry, mom.”

“Oh don’t let me interrupt your ... celebration. I just need to get by you two,” Leila says and moves around Adam and Tommy.

“See you later, Leila,” Tommy says to the woman.

“Bye Tommy … Adam,” Leila says and walks out the door.

Once the door closes, Adam leans against it and groans. Tommy laughs and pushes himself against him.

“I can’t believe my mom saw us,” Adam whines.

Tommy laughs more, “It’s not the first time.”

Adam groans again, “Don’t remind me!”

“Let’s get to the bedroom. It’ll be more comfortable for both of us,” Tommy says, and pulls Adam off the door and down the hall.

Once in their bedroom, Tommy pushes Adam onto the bed and slowly pulls his pants off, giving Adam a show. Adam pulls at Tommy’s hips, trying to get him to come onto the bed with him, but Tommy shakes his hands off and moves to Adam’s pants. He gets them off with help from Adam and throws them over his shoulder.

Now both naked, Tommy moves over Adam and kisses him while he presses their groins together. Adam moans into the kiss while he tries to get more friction to his hard cock. Tommy smiles into the kiss and pushes down, letting Adam have the friction he’s craving.

“Want you ... want to be inside you,” Adam moans to Tommy.

Tommy grinds down once more then moves off of Adam. Adam tries to get Tommy back, but Tommy hits at Adam’s hands and doesn’t let him grab him. Adam groans in frustration and moves to get at Tommy. When he succeeds, he pushes Tommy onto his front on the bed and grinds his dick into Tommy’s ass, making the smaller man moan.

“Adam ... feels good, but get off me. I want to take care of you for once,” Tommy says, and pushes up to try to dislodge Adam off his back.

Adam growls into Tommy’s ear and pushes his hard dick once more on Tommy before he gets off of him and rolls onto his back next to his husband.

Tommy quickly gets out the lube and condom from the drawer and moves over to Adam. He kisses him and reaches down to take hold of Adam’s length. Adam moans and moves his hips so that Tommy knows that he likes the touch. Tommy smiles and start to lightly stroke Adam.

“Feels good, so good ...” Adam trails off.

Tommy squeezes Adam at the base before letting go and moving down to kiss and lick at Adam’s nipples. Since the first time that Tommy had played with Adam’s nipples, he’d become obsessed with the way it made Adam respond. He loved making his man come undone with a few licks, and this time didn’t fail.

“T-tommy, you k-keep that up and I-I’ll come before we, ah, get to the f-fun part,” Adam stuttered out.

Tommy smiled against Adam, but kept up his attack on the man’s chest. Adam was squirming around, trying to get Tommy to do something other than play with his nipples, but it was no use.

“If y-you don’t stop I’ll c-come!” Adam says to Tommy.

Tommy licks once more at the nipple he was working on then gives up on teasing Adam. He knows that if he wants to get any action tonight, he needs to stop what’s he’s doing. He reaches for the lube he had gotten out earlier and opens it one handed.

Adam reaches his hand out, so that Tommy can pour the lube on his fingers, but Tommy doesn’t pour the liquid in his hand, but in his own. He gives Adam a smile before he puts the lube down and turns around, bending over to give Adam a view of his ass. He moves the hand with lube around and slowly teases at his hole. He feels Adam shift and looks over his shoulder to see Adam has taken a hold of his dick. He smiles and goes back to giving Adam a show.

He slowly opens himself up and when he hears Adam make a small noise every few minutes, he knows that he’s getting to the man. When he’s ready, he pulls his fingers out and turns back around to face Adam. He gets the condom from its spot and hands it to Adam. Adam tears it open quickly and gets it on his dick. Tommy has the lube and when the condom is on, he pours it over the latex and uses his hand to make sure the lube spreads over all of it.

Adam holds his dick at the base and waits for Tommy. Tommy moves over and slowly starts to sit down on Adam’s dick. Adam pushes up and gets more of himself in Tommy’s tight heat. Tommy groans and throws his head back when Adam pushes in.

“So tight...” Adam moans out.

Tommy pushes the rest of the way down and Adam’s all the way in. Tommy’s sitting on Adam’s hips as he gets adjusted to having Adam all the way in him.

“Move...please,” Adam says.

Tommy shifts his weight on his knees and soon, he’s moving back up Adam’s length. He leans over Adam as he moves himself up and down on Adam’s dick. Adam moves when Tommy’s all the way impaled on him and he makes Tommy yell out.

“Fuck … again,” Tommy says, and tries to get the feeling of Adam hitting his prostate again.

Adam adjusts his angle and pushes in and Tommy moans again. Adam smiles because he knows he’s got Tommy right where he wants him. Taking Tommy’s hips in his hands, Adam moves his feet so they’re flat on the bed and he’s able to push up into Tommy more. Tommy moves a hand to his leaking dick and starts to stroke himself as he lets Adam take over their movements.

Tommy’s at the edge and he knows Adam can tell by the way Adam’s hips start to slow, making it hard for Tommy to come.

“A-Adam … please, just … let me come,” Tommy pleads with the man.

Adam gives him an evil smile and slows his movements even more. Tommy groans in frustration and tries to move himself, so he can get off. Adam quickly stops him from moving by holding onto his hips tighter.

“No moving, baby. You messed with me and now it’s my turn to mess with you,” Adam says to the man.

Tommy groans with anger and is about to tell Adam to stop messing around when Adam quickly turns them so that Tommy’s on his back with his legs in the air and Adam’s looking down at him with a smile.

“Hold on, baby,” Adam says, and he’s sliding out of Tommy.

Adam pulls almost all the way out then pushes back in, hitting Tommy’s prostate. Tommy moans and let’s Adam have his way with him. He forgets he has his hand on his own dick until Adam is taking his dick in hand and starts to stroke him in time with his thrusts.

“Let go, baby … I’m here,” Adam says to Tommy.

Tommy feels Adam push in twice more, and then he’s coming over his stomach and Adam’s hand. He’s ass tightens around Adam’s dick and he feels, more than hears, Adam come as well. Adam falls over him and they lay in bed, trying to catch their breath. Adam pulls out slowly, but doesn’t move anymore.

Tommy catches his breath first and pushes at Adam. Adam rolls over on his side and looks at Tommy with a smile on his face.

Tommy looks at him with a questioning look on his face, “What?”

“Nothing … just admiring the view,” Adam says back.

Tommy rolls his eyes, but smiles as well. “You’re so cheesy.”

“And you love it,” Adam replies. He moves over and gives Tommy a kiss.

* * *

The next week Adam, Tommy, and Jenny went to the first ultrasound to make sure everything was okay and they would be able to hear the baby’s heart beat. They all arrived together at the doctor’s office and were taken into an exam room quickly. A nurse came in and checked Jenny over before the doctor came in.

“Everything looks great. The doctor will be with you shortly,” the nurse says and leaves the room.

Jenny looks over at Adam and Tommy with a smile, “Are you excited? Nervous?”

Adam smiles back, “I’m excited. I get to hear my kids heartbeat. I can’t believe it’s really happening.”

Jenny looks over at the small table where the screen for the ultrasound is set up and sees a box of tissues. She grabs the box and hands it to Adam, “You’re going to need these.”

Adam takes the box of tissues from her and takes a few out of the box. He hands the box to Tommy, who takes one for himself as well. Jenny tells them stories about her daughters as they wait. The more she talks to them the more Adam is happy they picked her as their surrogate.

There’s a knock on the door and the doctor enters, “Hello, oh we have a full house,” she says and closes the door behind.

“Hello, I’m Adam and this is Tommy my husband. Jenny is our surrogate,” Adam says, introducing himself and Tommy to the doctor.

She smiles and shakes Adam and Tommy’s hand, “Dr. White. It’s nice to meet you...how about we begin the exam?”

Adam nods and watches as the doctor gets her gloves on. She measures Jenny’s stomach, which doesn’t have any growth to it yet and then notes it in the chart. After a few questions to Jenny about how she’s feeling The doctor goes to the cabinet and gets out a bottle of gel.

“This’ll be cold,” Dr. White warns Jenny then puts the gel on Jenny’s bare stomach. Jenny hisses for the cold.

The doctor puts the bottle down, then turns on the ultrasound machine and picks up the wand for it. She places the wand on Jenny’s stomach and moves it around. She locates the heartbeat of the baby and smiles.

Pointing at the screen Dr. White says, “That’s the heartbeat...oh hold on.”

She moves the wand again and points at something on the screen, “That’s another heartbeat...congrats you’re having twins!”

Adam looks at the screen in shock. Twins, two babies are now going to join their family.

“Adam, Tommy...” Jenny says looking at the two men.

“Twins,” is all Adam says back to her.

“That means both of you are going to be biological fathers,” Jenny says back.

Adam turns to Tommy and takes the small man into his arms. He kisses him on the forehead and smiles down at him.

“We’re going to be dads!” Adam says.

Tommy smiles at him still dazed, “Yea...yea we are.”

“Alright, everyone I am done for today. Jenny you can schedule your next appointment at the front desk. Congrats again. I’ll be seeing you soon,” Dr. White says. She gets up from her stool and puts the machine away, wipes Jenny’s stomach off, and finally throws her gloves out.

Adam turned and pulled Tommy into his arms and let a few tears slip from his eyes. Tommy held on to him and whispered in his ear, trying to give him support.

“It’s okay, twins is better than just one. We’ll be fine,” Adam says to Tommy.

Tommy nods and holds Adam tighter before letting him go. He turns to Jenny and smiles at her.

“Twins, wow...are you ready for two?” Tommy asks the woman.

She smiles at him, “Not even close, but I can’t wait. We’re all in for a wild adventure.”

Tommy nervously chuckles, “Huh, yeah...an adventure indeed.”

Leaving the office with Jenny was easy. They quickly agreed on when the next appointment would be and soon were saying their goodbyes to one another. Jenny promised to call them if anything happened before the next appointment, which she assured them nothing would happen.

On the way home, Adam couldn’t stop talking about what they would do now that they knew they were having twins. He wanted to redo the nursery and he wanted it to be made so it would be go for a boy or a girl. Tommy just sat quietly and listened to Adam ramble on and on about the room. He wasn’t paying much attention since he still didn’t have an interest in decorating.

Tommy had zoned out, but he heard Adam calling his name and shook himself out of his head.

“Huh? What were you saying?” Tommy asks Adam.

Adam sighs and rolls his eyes, “I was saying we should have your mom and sister over so we can give them the news. We haven’t told anyone, but my mom and I think it’s time to let the family know.”

Tommy nods, “Yea, that would be great. I’ll call them.”

“Okay, see if they can come over Friday night. It should give us enough time to get everything ready to tell them the news,” Adam replies.

* * *

On Friday night Tommy is so nervous that he can’t sit still. He’s been going crazy since he called him mom and sister about them coming over for dinner. He hadn’t said why he wanted them to come over, but that he just wanted them to have dinner with his family.

For dinner, Adam had ordered out from his and Tommy’s favorite sushi restaurant. They had Leila take Landon for the night because they hadn’t told him about the news yet. They had both agreed they tell him after the first trimester, and even though they were telling their parents before their son they felt is was right. They didn’t want to have to tell Landon he was getting sibling and then Jenny miscarry. They couldn’t put him through the mess again. Not after how bad it was when the adoption with Hailey fell through.

The doorbell rang making Tommy’s heart stop for a second. He walked over to the door and before he opened it, took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Opening the door, he smiled and greeted his mom and sister.

They made small talk as they walked to the dining room and sat down. Tommy played host and got them their drinks, then calling for Adam to come down to dinner. Adam arrived downstairs with a smile on his face and kissed each woman on the cheek. He went into the kitchen and brought out the sushi to serve.

During dinner, Tommy picked at his food, which didn’t go unnoticed to his mother.

“Tommy, why aren’t you eating?” Dia asks.

Tommy looks up at his mother and back down at his plate to see that his sushi isn’t in rolls anymore, but more of a mashup of the contents.

“Um, well...um, Adam?” Tommy asks, looking at his husband.

Adam looks back at Tommy and tries to talk to him without saying anything. The message gets through and Tommy pushes his plate away.

“Um, Mom, Lisa... Adam and I have something important to tell you,” Tommy starts, “We, um, we are going to be parents again. We’re going to have twins and the surrogate is ten weeks along. We’re the biological fathers of the twins...well we both are. One bio kid from each of us, but we’re not sure yet and-”

Dia cuts Tommy off, “Slow down, baby.”

Tommy takes a deep breath and starts from the beginning, “Adam and I are going to be parents again. We both wanted another child and since the adoption fell through the first time, we decided that we couldn’t do it again. So we are doing surrogacy. Adam and I both donated and two eggs were implanted into our surrogate and it looks like they both took, so we’re having twins.”

Dia has tears in her eyes as she listens to Tommy tell them about the twins.

“Tommy, that’s... wonderful. Congratulations!” Lisa says and moves from her seat to hug her brother.

He hugs her back and then lets go. He turns to his mom and she now has a few tears falling down her face.

“Mom?” Tommy says and moves over to her.

“Oh Tommy... Adam... this is the best news!” Dia says and pulls Tommy into a hug.

Tommy feels Adam wrap his arms around the two of them and he lets a few tears fall as well. They stay in their hug for a few moments before Dia pulls away and wipes at her eyes. She is smiling from ear to ear and moves to kiss Tommy on the cheek then does the same to Adam.

“You two deserve these kids. I can’t wait to meet them,” Dia says to the couple.

“We can’t wait either,” Tommy replies.


	13. Chapter 13

At eighteen weeks, Tommy is with Jenny at the doctor’s office to find out the gender of the twins. Adam couldn’t make it because of an interview he was doing for _The Advocate_. He couldn’t reschedule it because of the photographer the magazine had coming out from New York. Tommy had told Adam he would call him as soon as he and Jenny had found out the gender of the twins.

As Tommy and Jenny waited for the doctor to come in and check out Jenny, Tommy played on his phone. He was texting with Isaac seeing how he and Sophie were doing with their kids. Since the birth of their third child, Isaac had been slowly going crazy. He had been known to call Tommy at all times of the night just to talk to him and keep him sane.

The knock on the door pulled Tommy away from his phone. He stood up and greeted Dr. Walker.

“Hi, Tommy, Jenny, no Adam today?” Dr. White asks.

“He had a meeting he couldn’t miss,” Tommy replies.

Dr. White smiles, “Well, there’s always next time...so shall we get started? I know you’re all excited to find out the sexes of the babies.”

Tommy nodded and waited quietly as Dr. White got the ultrasound machine ready. While the machine was warming up, the doctor checked the measurement of Jenny’s stomach and asks her about eating habits, sleep, and everything Tommy isn’t too interested in. He goes back to his phone and smiles when he sees a text from Adam.

_Meeting got over quickly. C U soon. x_

Tommy replies back with a quick reply and goes back to paying attention to the doctor and Jenny.

Wand in hand, Dr. White moves around Jenny’s stomach, locating the heartbeats of each twin, then moves it around again to get a better look at the lower halves of each.

“Baby A looks healthy. Strong heartbeat and normal growth for being a twin... now let’s see. Hm, come on, baby...there we go. Baby A is a boy,” Dr. White says.

Jenny smiles and looks at Tommy. He smiles back.

Dr. White moves the wand again and goes to the second baby, “Baby B just like his or her brother has a strong heartbeat and normal growth...and Baby B is a girl!”

Tommy’s smile goes from big to huge. He can’t believe he’s getting a new son and daughter.

“Tommy... Tommy, you have to tell Adam,” Jenny tells him.

Tommy looks at Jenny, “Huh?”

Jenny gives a small laugh, “Adam... you have to call him to tell him the news!”

“Oh, oh yeah,” Tommy replies and quickly goes to his phone that is in his hand.

He presses the call button and hears it ring once before Adam’s picking up.

“So? Tell me!” Adam says by way of greeting.

“We’re having a son and a daughter,” Tommy says.

“Oh my... God! Tommy are serious?” Adam replies.

“Yes,” Tommy says back.

“I... we have to redo the nursery! I mean pink is fine, but not for our son! We need to redo the whole room. I’ll call the designer we had and see if she can come fix the room again. If not, I’m sure Scarlett would love to help, oh my God, baby!” Adam says in a hurry.

Tommy chuckles at Adam’s train of thought. He loves when Adam gets overly excited and starts speaking his thoughts.

“Tommy, I-I have to go. See you later,” Adam says.

“Later baby,” Tomy replies and hangs up.

“I’m guessing he was excited,” Jenny smirks.

Tommy chuckles, “Yeah... really excited.”

“Well, I’m finished here. Again, congrats to the three of you. Jenny, make an appointment at the front desk. Tommy, I’ll see you next time,” Dr. White says and gets up from her seat. She moves around Tommy and out the door, leaving Jenny and Tommy alone.

“A boy and a girl, what more can you ask for? Best of both worlds,” Jenny says.

“Yeah, Landon will be happy to have a brother... and a sister. I guess we should tell him that he’s getting siblings,” Tommy replies.

Jenny gives Tommy a look, “You haven’t told him yet?”

Tommy blushes, “Well... we were waiting until after the first trimester. Then we decided to wait until we found out what we were having. We didn’t want to get his hopes up and have them be crushed if you had a miscarriage... we can’t do that to him again.”

Jenny places her hand on Tommy’s, “I understand... my three year old daughter, she’s still young enough that she doesn’t understand that even though I’m pregnant, the baby isn’t her little brother or sister. When I go to the hospital and come home without a baby, she gets upset.”

Tommy squeezes Jenny’s hand, “Thank you... for doing this. It means alot to me and Adam.”

Jenny smiles, “I know... ok, time to get back to real life! I have kids to pick up and dance classes to get to.”

Tommy lets go of Jenny’s hand and leaves the room to let her change. Jenny comes out fully changed into her clothes and they walk out together.

“Oh, Tommy I have to schedule the next appointment. When should we do it?” Jenny says as they’re at the door.

She walks back to the front desk and waits for Tommy’s reply.

He walks over to her and looks down at his phone. He tries to put important meetings and stuff into his phone, but sometimes he doesn’t have the full details of everything he’s doing.

“Um, when are you supposed to come back?” Tommy asks.

“About four weeks from now,” Jenny replies.

Tommy scrolls through the weeks until he’s four weeks from the current date and sees that Adam has an appearance on _Ellen_ that day and the next two days are filled with TV appearances and performances.

“We’re booked the first half of the week, but free after that,” Tommy explains.

“That’s fine,” Jenny replies and quickly gets the next appointment figured out with the nurse at the front desk.

* * *

That night Tommy and Adam sit Landon down to tell him the good news.

“Hey buddy, Da and I have some very good news,” Tommy says to his son.

“What?” Landon asks.

“Well remember how we wanted to have another baby?” Tommy says back.

“Yes, and then we didn’t get the baby... I was really sad,” Landon replies.

“I know and Da and I were really sad, too, but that’s going to change... you’re going to be getting a little brother... and sister,” Tommy happily tells Landon.

Landon perks up, “Really?”

“Yes, really,” Adam says, coming into the conversation.

“And this time, no one is going to take my sister?” Landon asks.

“No one is going to take your sister or brother... I promise,” Adam answers.

Landon smiles, “When can I meet them? Are they coming home soon?”

“Well they’re still in their, um, mom’s tummy for a little while, but you’ll get to see them soon.” Adam replies.

“Can I play with them when they come home?” Landon asks.

“Babies need to sleep a lot when they first come home, so you can’t play with them,” Tommy answers.

“Oh... can I have a cookie now?” Landon asks.

Tommy smiles, “Sure, come on.”

* * *

Tommy was up late because he couldn’t sleep when the house phone rang. Tommy’s heart has skipped a beat, but he picked up quickly.

“Hello?” Tommy answers the phone.

“T-Tommy?” comes Jenny’s voice from the phone.

“Yeah, Jenny what’s wrong?” Tommy asks.

“I-I’m having contractions... they’re about fifteen minutes apart... Tommy I’m at the hospital. They admitted me as soon as I arrived,” Jenny says.

“Jenny, are you... are the twins okay?” Tommy says. His mind’s in a fog. He’s not sure what to say when you hear that you’re surrogate is in the hospital.

“I don’t know... they’re going to run some tests right now,” Jenny replies.

“I’m coming... I’ll get Adam up and we’ll be there as soon as possible,” Tommy tells her. He’s already going up the stairs to his and Adam’s room.

“I don’t want to scare you guys, it’s probably nothing,” Jenny says back.

Tommy’s outside the door of his and Adam’s room when he answers, “We’re coming. These are our children and we’re going to be there for them and you. I’m at my room... we’ll see you soon.”

“Okay... and Tommy... don’t worry. The twins will be okay,” Jenny says as a way to say good bye.

Tommy hangs up the phone and walks into his and Adam’s room. Adam is sleeping peacefully with a slight smile on his face. Tommy takes a deep breath before he walks over to their bed and sits down next to Adam.

“Ad... hey, baby, wake up,” Tommy softly says and shakes Adam’s shoulder.

Adam stirs and moans in his sleep. Tommy shakes his shoulder again and this time Adam cracks open one eye then the other to look at him.

“T-Tommy, what time is it?” Adam asks.

“Late...Jenny called-” Tommy starts, but Adam interrupts him.

“What’s wrong? Is she okay? Are the twins okay?” Adam asks in a rush.

Tommy stops Adam, “Jenny called and she’s having contractions about fifteen minutes apart. She is at the hospital and they’re running tests. I told her we’d be there as soon as possible.”

Adam gets up from their bed and moves to the closet. He opens it and grabs pants, a t-shirt, and sweatshirt. He quickly gets dressed and when he turns around, he finds Tommy isn’t in the room.

Moving to the door, he sees Tommy out in the hall with a sleeping Landon in his arms.

“We can’t leave him here by himself,” Tommy whispers to Adam.

Adam nods and goes to take Landon from Tommy’s arms, “Get dressed and I’ll meet you at the car.”

Tommy moves to their room and quickly throws something on. He’s quickly moving down the stair and to the car. He’s in a fog. He can’t think about anything else, but getting to the hospital and making sure the twins are okay.

On the way Tommy calls his mom who say she’ll be at the hospital as soon as they arrive, which isn’t possible, but makes Tommy feel a little better.

Once at the hospital, Tommy takes Landon out of his car seat and walks quickly to the entrance of the building. Adam is walking next to him talking to his own mother on the phone. They make it into the waiting area of the hospital and walk up to the front desk.

“Can I help you?” the nurse at the front desk asks.

“Yes, we’re here to see Jenny Harris. She was taken here about... fuck, I don’t how long ago, but she’s here. Twenty-five weeks pregnant and having contractions,” Tommy tells the nurse.

She moves to her computer and puts Jenny’s name into it, “She’s up on the maternity ward. Third floor. A security guard is at the front desk. You can tell him who you’re there for.”

“Thank you,” Tommy says and walks quickly to the elevator.

Once up at the maternity ward, the security guard only allows one person in the room at a time. Adam tells Tommy to go and he’ll wait for their moms to arrive and to watch over Landon.

Tommy quickly, almost runs, down the hall to Jenny’s room. He finds the door and knocks before he enters. When he walks in, he finds Jenny in bed, hooked up to fetal monitors, monitors for herself, and she looks completely calm.

“Tommy, hey,” Jenny says, greeting the man.

“Hey, how are you? The tests done yet? Are the twins okay?” Tommy greets and asks all at once.

“I’m fine, the babies are fine. They gave me some stuff to stop the contractions. The tests aren’t done yet. Hopefully soon though,” Jenny answers.

Tommy breaths out a sigh of relief. It was a tense time before he had gotten to the hospital to see Jenny in person. Now that he was there, he felt a little better about what was happening.

“Tommy, you can sit down. It’s going to be a while,” Jenny says.

Tommy moves to the chair next to Jenny’s bed and sits. They are quiet and every move Tommy hears from outside makes him anxious. He wants to know what’s going on and the wait is killing him.

Finally the doctor comes into the room, “Mrs. Harris... and Mr...”

“Tommy, Tommy Ratliff,” Tommy says.

“Mr. Ratliff, hello... we have the test results back and you, Jenny, were indeed going into early labor. The medicine we have you on right now seem to be working and we’d like to keep you here to make sure they keep working. In the morning I’ll make the final decision on how to proceed. Right now you can get some sleep. I’m sure you’re tired,” the doctor told them.

“And the babies? They’re fine, right?” Tommy asks.

“Yes, there’s nothing showing up that says they’re not,” the doctor answers.

“What will you decide in the morning?” Tommy asks.

“I’ll see if Jenny will have to stay on bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy and would it be better for her to stay at the hospital or if she can return home for the rest of the pregnancy,” the doctor explains.

“And if she has to stay here?” Tommy asks.

The doctor sighs, “She’ll stay in the room she is in now and be monitored day and night to make sure she won’t go into early labor again. She’ll be able to get up to go to the restroom, but that’s it. But for now the two of you should get some rest.”

“Thank you, doctor,” Jenny says.

The doctor makes a quick exit out of the room and closes the door behind himself.

“You should go see Adam. He’s probably wondering what’s going on,” Jenny says to Tommy.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to leave you alone,” Tommy replies.

Jenny smiles, “I’m fine. Go.”

Tommy leaves the room and goes back down the hall to the waiting area. He finds Dia and Leila there wide awake while Adam and Landon are both asleep. Landon has his head in Adam’s lap and Adam has an arm around the little boy.

“How are they?” Dia asks, standing up to meet Tommy.

“Fine, the doctor will have the final word in the morning to see if Jenny has to stay at the hospital or not. She’ll be on bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy though,” Tommy tells her.

“Oh thank God, they’re fine,” Dia says back.

“You and Leila can go home. I’m sorry we called you two,” Tommy says to his and Adam’s mothers.

“Do you want me to take Landon home? No reason for him to have to stay here for the rest of the night,” Dia asks.

“Um, yeah sure that would be great,” Tommy replies.

Tommy moves over to Adam and Landon. He carefully moves Adam’s arm from around Landon’s body and picks him up. Landon stirs, but settles quickly with his head on Tommy’s shoulder.

 

“Call me when you have any news,” Dia says as she settles with Landon in her arms.

“I will, thanks mom, for taking him,” Tommy says back.

“I love you, baby,” Dia says and kisses Tommy on the cheek.

“Love you too, mom,” Tommy replies.

He waits by the elevator with her and when it gets to their floor, he waits until the doors close with his mom and son in the car before he turns around and goes back to Adam and Leila. He wakes Adam and smiles when Adam is still blurry eyed and not sure where he is.

“Hey, baby,” Adam says and moves to kiss Tommy.

“Hey, not in front of your mom,” Tommy says, winking at Leila.

Adam chuckles, “She’s seen us do worst.”

Leila laughs, “More than once.”

Adam stretches and looks around, remembering where he is, he turns to Tommy, “Jenny... the babies, how are they?”

“They’re fine... for now. The doctor said he’d make the final decision later about if Jenny will need to stay in the hospital or will be able to go home. She’ll be on bed rest for sure, but it’s where she’ll be on bed rest that is the real question.” Tommy answers.

Adam breathes out a sigh of relief, “Thank God.”

Tommy nods, “Everything will be fine.”

“You should sleep. You haven’t slept all night,” Adam says.

“I know, but sleeping right now is the least of my worries at the moment,” Tommy replies.

Adam grunts, “You sleep, I’ll be here if the doctor comes back or something. And my mom’s here as well.”

“I can’t sleep... I’m too amped up,” Tommy says back. He knows he should sleep, but sleeping comes hard to him normally, and now with the scare, sleep won’t come any sooner.

“Try, please... for me?” Adam says. He’s doing his best impression of sad eyes and even though they’re not that good, they do make Tommy’s heart melt and he’ll do anything Adam asks.

Tommy sighs, “Alright... but wake me when the doctor comes.”

Adam nods, “Of course.”

Tommy lays down the best he can on the couch that he and Adam are sitting on. He places his head on Adam’s thigh and closes his eyes. Adam’s fingers are running through his hair and the feelings of them are making Tommy relax. His thoughts are running a mile a minute, but the feeling of Adam’s fingers make the thoughts start to slow.

What feels like a minute later, Tommy’s being awoken by Adam, “Hey, morning baby.”

Tommy groans, “Hey, how long was I out?”

“Only two hours, but the doctor came out and told us the news,” Adam replies.

“What? Tell me,” Tommy says.

“Jenny will be staying at the hospital for the rest of the pregnancy. The tests they ran showed that her blood pressure is way up and they want to monitor it, so that she and the twins aren’t in danger. But as of right now she’s fine, just sleepy,” Adam tells Tommy.

“So we’re making camp here then?” Tommy asks.

“Jenny is, not us. We can come visit during regular visiting hours,” Adam replies.

“What about her family?” Tommy asks.

“I don’t know. It’s not like I got to see her yet,” Adam says back.

Tommy looks away, “Sorry, I hogged all the time with her... you can go see her now if you want.”

“It’s fine, she’s probably trying to sleep... which is what we should be doing. We should get home and get Landon ready for school, then we can sleep once we get back from dropping him off,” Adam replies.

“Or you two can go straight to sleep and let Dia and me take care of Landon,” Leila says, putting her two cents in.

“That would be perfect... mom you’re awesome,” Adam says back.

Leila smiles and stands, “Let’s get you two home.”


	14. Chapter 14

The next five weeks go by quickly with daily visits to Jenny. The routine was to get Landon ready for school, go visit Jenny in the morning, go to lunch, pick Landon up, go visit Jenny again, then go home for dinner. At night, Jenny had reserved the time for her family to come visit. She would only get to see her children for a couple of hours a day since they were both in school and her husband worked.

One day while Adam and Tommy were alone with Jenny, she started having contractions again.

“Get a nurse,” Jenny says to them.

Tommy runs out of room to go to the nurse’s station while Adam stays with Jenny.

“Everything will be okay. Just hold on for a minute,” Adam says to the woman.

Jenny nods and touches her stomach as they wait for the nurse to come. Adam is in a panic and doesn’t say anything.

“Adam, I, ah, I’m fine,” Jenny says, trying to reassure him while she has another contraction.

Tommy comes running back into the room with a nurse who quickly looks over Jenny’s vitals and the monitors of the twin’s heartbeats.

“I’m going to call the doctor... we need to get you to the OR now,” the nurse said. She pressed a button over Jenny’s bed and soon, more nurses were coming into the room.

Adam and Tommy stood in shock as the nurse quickly got Jenny’s bed and monitors ready to be moved. As Jenny’s bed started rolling out the door, Adam shakes his head, clearing it, and starts to follow the team of nurses and Jenny down the hall. Tommy quickly follows after not knowing what to say or do.

As they get to the elevator, a nurse stops them, “Only one of you can ride up with us, the other will have to wait. We’re going to floor six.”

Tommy looks at Adam, and without saying anything, pushes him into the waiting elevator with the nurses and Jenny.

“Tommy, are you sure?” Adam asks and tries to get out.

“Go... I’ll be there in a minute,” Tommy says. He watches the doors close then presses the up button to wait for the next elevator.

Tommy gets out his phone and texts both Leila and Dia to tell them what’s going on and to see who can pick up Landon from school. Leila quickly replies back, saying she’ll pick up Landon and take him to her house.

When the elevator arrives, Tommy steps in happy that it’s empty save for him. On the ride up to the sixth floor, his mind starts to go into overdrive and he can’t help but think that one or both of the babies won’t make it. By the time he reaches the floor, he’s almost crying.

Adam is waiting for Tommy when he comes out of the elevator. When he sees his husband, he pulls him into a hug and doesn’t let go. “Stop thinking whatever you’re thinking. Everything’s going to be okay.”

Adam’s not sure who he’s trying to convince more; himself or Tommy.

Tommy looks up at Adam with tears in his eyes. “I can’t stop thinking about us going home without our children... I can’t think of what would happen if we went home without them.”

“Shh, I know... but everything will be okay. The doctor and nurses are in there and everything will be okay,” Adam says back.

A nurse comes up to them and takes them to the waiting room. She asks them if there’s anything they need, but both men shake their heads, telling her no. She leaves them in the room to wait on the news of the twins.

An hour later, the doctor comes into the waiting room and sits down across from Adam and Tommy.

“How are they?” Adam asks the doctor.

“The twins are fine... small of course, but fine. The girl had some trouble breathing, so they’ve put a tube down her throat to help her breathe. She weighed three pounds even. The boy is breathing on his own for now, but they’ll put a tube in to help him breathe soon. He weighed three pounds, two ounces. Both will be in the Neonatal Unit for a few weeks while they gain weight and learn to breathe and eat on their own. For now, they’re going to be breathing and eating through tubes,” the doctor tells them.

“Wh-what are their chances for survival?” Tommy asks. He hates that he has to ask the question.

“High, not very, but high. If they were born five weeks ago, we would be in a different place,” the doctor tells him.

“Can we see them?” Adam asks.

“They’re in the NICU right now, and the nurses will be working on them at the moment, so you’ll have to wait,” the doctor responses.

“But we can go in and see them?” Adam asks.

“Of course. I’ll have a nurse come get you when your twins are ready,” the doctor answers. He stands and leaves Adam and Tommy in the waiting room.

“Tommy, are you okay?” Adam asks, turning to his husband.

Tommy shakes his head, “I don’t know. Should I be?”

Adam puts his arm around Tommy’s shoulders. “You can be whatever you want to be... we should call our parents to let them know what’s going on.”

“Can you do it? I don’t know if I can talk right now,” Tommy asks.

Adam nods, “I’ll call my mom and I’ll have her tell everyone... I don’t want anyone to come. Not yet... it’s just too much.”

“I don’t either. I can’t deal with all of their sad looks right now,” Tommy replies.

Adam nods and moves out of the room to quickly call his mother. He tells her the details they have about the twins and makes sure to tell her more than once to tell everyone not to come to the hospital. She tells Adam that she’ll let everyone know, and that she loves him and Tommy before she hangs up.

Adam moves back to sit next to Tommy. They’re silent as they want to go meet their twins. It’s not long before a nurse comes and gets them.

As they walk to the NICU, the nurse tells them they have to put on gowns and how they have to wash their hands before they can go see their children. Adam nor Tommy says anything to the nurse as she explains all of this.

Once hands are washed and gowns are put on, Adam and Tommy are led by the nurse who brought them to the NICU over to two incubators with tubes sticking out of them and in the middle of blankets wrapped up to support the small body are Adam and Tommy’s daughter and son. They’re tiny, and seeing them makes Adam gasp. He wasn’t prepared for the sight, but that doesn’t stop him from looking at both of them and getting tears to his eyes.

“You can stay as long as you want. If you want to touch them, put your hand through one of the holes on side, but be careful of the wires,” the nurse tells them and walks away.

Adam and Tommy stand on either side of their son’s incubator and look in on him. He has a tube in his nose that is taped to his cheek, and wires are taped to his chest to monitor his heartbeats. His eyes are closed and his little mouth is slightly open in an ‘O’ shape, making it look like he’s sleeping.

“He’s so tiny... how can a baby be this small and live outside the womb?” Tommy asks.

“I don’t know,” Adam replies, because he’s in as much awe as Tommy is.

They move around to look at their daughter who is in the same shape as her brother. She’s just as tiny and fragile-like as her twin, but with very light red hair, and you knew that she was Adam’s biologically.

“She has your hair,” Tommy comments.

“I hope that doesn’t last long. I don’t want her to grow up being teased like I was,” Adam says.

Tommy smirks, “She’ll be the most beautiful girl in the world, and all the boys will be knocking down the door to date her.”

Adam smiles, “And I’ll be waiting there with a shotgun, so that none of those boys can take my babygirl.”

* * *

Three days later, Adam and Tommy are in the NICU while a nurse is changing their son and daughter’s bedding. They’ve been there every second they’re allowed to and when it’s time to go, they fight it as long as they can before a nurse is shooing them out of the room.

Once the nurse finishes with the changing the beds of the twins, she throws the old blankets into a bag to be taken away then moves onto the next bed. Adam quickly moves to the side of his daughter and makes sure she’s comfortable.

“She wasn’t very nice,” Adam comments to Tommy.

“She wasn’t doing anything wrong. Just changing their beds,” Tommy replies.

“I don’t want her touching my kids,” Adam says back.

Tommy laughs, “Okay baby, we’ll talk to the head nurse about it.”

Later when they’re being shooed out of the room for the night the head nurse, Betty, comes up to them before they’re fully out of the NICU.

“Hey boys, we need names for your twins. We can’t just keep calling them ‘the twins’,” Betty says.

Adam and Tommy have had names picked out since they found out they were having twins, but haven’t agreed on anything.

“You can name our daughter, if I can name our son,” Tommy says to Adam.

Adam nods, “Okay... Melanie Faith Ratliff-Lambert.”

Betty writes it down quickly on Melanie’s chart, “Beautiful name for a beautiful girl... now your son.”

“Emerson Aaron Ratliff-Lambert,” Tommy says.

Betty smiles at the name and writes it down on Emerson’s chart. “Great, Mel and Em, are going to be in good hands for the night, which you already know. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

Over the next week, Adam and Tommy have become more comfortable in the NICU that when the new parents come in, they’re there to greet them and give them smiles and encouragement through the hard times to come.

The hardest thing for them though is the constant alarms going off when one of the other babies in the unit would stop breathing or their little hearts would stop. The monitors would go off and the nurses would come running. Adam and Tommy could only watch in silence and thank God that it wasn’t their children who were the ones crashing.

They also made friends with the baby who was living next to Emerson. She was born at thirty-three weeks just a few days after Emerson and Melanie were and she was just as small and delicate as they were. Her parents, Joe and Kate, were there as much as Adam and Tommy were. They had named their little girl, Olivia.

On Sunday afternoon, Adam and Tommy were hanging out by Melanie and Emerson when Olivia’s monitors started going off. Joe and Kate had stepped out for a minute to get lunch, so they weren’t there.

“I’ll go find Joe and Kate you stay here,” Tommy says and runs out of the room.

Adam watches as the nurses work on the little baby and prays that they can revive her. While he watches, he has his hand on Emerson’s incubator. One of the nurses runs to the cabinet filled with vials and comes back with one. She quickly gets a needle filled with whatever was in the vial and pushes it into the IV line that’s hooked up to Olivia.

Tommy returns with Joe and Kate and he moves back to Adam. Adam places an arm around Tommy and doesn’t take his eyes off of Olivia’s bed.

“Is she...” Tommy trails off.

Adam holds him tighter, “It’ll be fine...she’ll be fine.”

A half hour later, Joe and Kate are taken by Betty to another room as Olivia’s machines are turned off and another nurse is taking all the wires and tubes off of her.

Adam turns his back once they had turned off the first machine. He can’t look at the spot where Olivia won’t be anymore. He looks down at Melanie and smiles at his daughter. He feels Tommy next to him and he pulls him in.

“Are you okay?” Tommy asks.

“It’s so scary...this was the first time it’s been someone we’ve known that’s... that’s, you know, gone. It could’ve been one of ours,” Adam honestly tells him.

Tommy holds onto Adam tighter and gives him the support he knows that Adam needs. He can’t fathom what Joe and Kate are going through. What he needs to do is just think about getting his children out of the hospital and getting them home.

That night when it was time to go, Adam was having a hard time leaving the twins’ sides. He kept saying it would be one more minute and that he just wanted to make sure his children were comfortable. Tommy just stood there and let Adam do what he wanted. He knew that after what had happened that afternoon Adam wasn’t going to go home without a fight.

“Adam, it’s time to go,” Tommy says.

“But... just one more minute, please,” Adam pleads to Tommy.

Tommy pulls on Adam’s hand, “Come on, baby. Mel and Em will be fine. Betty’s here to watch over them. We’ll come back in the morning.”

“Please, just one more minute?” Adam says, pleading with his eyes. He knows that he’s being ridiculous, but he doesn’t want to leave the twins.

Tommy sighs and lets Adam stay for a few more seconds then he pulls him away from their children and out of the NICU.

* * *

When they’re home Adam goes to the bathroom and starts the water in the bath. He puts in his favorite bath oil and gets the water to just the right temperature. While he waits for the bath to fill, he undresses and places his clothes into the correct baskets to be washed. Once naked, he goes back into the bathroom and gets into the bath. He sinks down into the water and lets it lap at his skin. The feeling of warmth and the smell of lavender calms him and he starts to unwind from the eventful day.

Tommy, meanwhile, takes up his place in the music room. He takes out one of his guitars and starts to play it. He’s not playing any song, but strumming the guitar is enough for him to feel better after the death of Olivia. He can’t believe that someone close to them has to go through so much pain. He can’t think about what would happen if they lost one or both of the twins. It would be too much to bare.

After the water turns cold, Adam drains the bath and dries himself off. He goes to the bedroom and finds his sweats and a t-shirt that is soft and comfortable. He moves to the door after he’s dressed and hears the soft flow of the guitar coming from the music room. He moves to the room to listen to Tommy.

When Tommy finishes the melody he was playing, Adam speaks, “Come to bed?”

Tommy looks up at him and nods, “Yeah, okay.”

He puts the guitar down in it’s spot and walks over to Adam. He gets pulled into a hug by the taller man. He takes comfort from the familiar scent that’s forever etched into the t-shirt that Adam’s wearing.

Adam walks them into their room and let’s Tommy get undressed and into his own comfort clothes. He moves over to the bed and gets under the covers to wait for the other man to join him.

Once changed into his more comfortable clothes, Tommy gets into bed with Adam and moves to him. Adam turns on his side, so he can have an arm under Tommy’s neck and he can have the other wrapped around his waist. It feels good to have Tommy there next to him.

“Do you want to talk?” Tommy asks. He’s hoping Adam says no, so he doesn’t have to experience the pain he’s in as well as listen to the pain that’s Adam’s in. He can’t handle it all right now.

“Do you?” Adam asks back, knowing the answer.

“I asked you,” Tommy counters.

Adam gives him a small smile, “We don’t have to. Let’s just lay here.”

Tommy nods and moves closer to Adam. He’s turned onto his side now and he’s got his arms wrapped around Adam with his hands holding onto the back of Adam’s shirt. The feeling of the shirt gives him enough comfort to relax enough to try and sleep.

That night as Tommy tries to sleep, Adam’s awake for most of it, just looking at him. He soothes his husband’s hair back when he sees that Tommy’s dreams are getting to be too much, and he kisses his forehead when he frowns.

It was a long night, but when the dawn breaks, both men finally fall asleep still wrapped in one another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second to last chapter! I can't believe it! Seems like just yesterday I was just in the beginning stages writing this story.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who's read this! Without you guys this wouldn't have been made.
> 
> Also a HUGE thank you to my ever patient beta. She has been awesome and helped me get this story out.
> 
> Lastly, there's a surprise at in the ending notes, so please take a look!

Over the next two months, Emerson and Melanie were slowly getting bigger and stronger. Emerson’s breathing tube was taken out a month after he was born. He was still hooked up to a heart monitor that would go off when his heart stopped and when he stopped breathing. The nurses taught Adam and Tommy what to do if the machine went off. It was all in a matter of helping the little boy remember to breathe. Melanie on the other hand had to kept the tube to breathe in for an extra two weeks after Emerson got his out, but once she was able to have the tube out, she was breathing easily. Like Emerson, she had to kept on a monitor for her heart and breathing, but all in all was in good health.

Adam and Tommy still hadn’t been able to hold either of the twins. Everyday they weren’t allowed made them more antsy and wanting to do it more. Betty had told them that the twins just had to be cleared by the doctor and then they could hold the twins.

“Can we hold them today?” Adam asks Betty, knowing it’s useless to ask.

“Not yet, but soon, sweetie,” Betty replies and makes her way over to the next baby.

Adam looks down at Melanie and he puts his hand through the hole of her incubator to stroke her little head. She had grown more hair and it was still a strawberry blonde color. He’s natural hair color was her hair and even though he hated it he knew that she’d look beautiful with it.

An hour later, Betty comes back with a smile on her face, “I have a surprise for you!”

Adam looks up and smiles, “Yeah?”

“Sit down in the rocking chair and unbutton your shirt...only half way we don’t want the nurses and other parents in here getting scared from the white light coming from you,” Betty says and gives Adam a wink.

Adam rolls his eyes and does what he’s told. Tommy is standing close to him and waits to see what’s going to happen. They watch as Betty opens up Emerson’s incubator and gets all the wires out of the way. She takes the blanket he’s laying on and folds it over him then takes him out of the incubator. She brings him over and places him on Adam’s chest. Adam’s hands go around the small baby as the little boy settles into his new spot.

“He feels so good,” Adam says to Tommy.

Tommy smiles and wipes a tear from Adam’s face. He wants to hold one of his kids as well, but right now it’s perfect to watch Adam hold their son. He gets his phone out and moves to take a photo of Adam and Emerson. He gets the perfect shot and smiles as he saves it, then makes it his phone’s lock screen picture.

Adam kisses Emerson’s head and hums to him when he starts to cry. Emerson stays content on Adam’s chest and when it’s time to put him back in his bed, Emerson cries from the lost of warmth. Adam tries to take him back, but Betty won’t let him. She places the crying baby back in his incubator, then closes it back up once everything is settled.

“Hey, little man, it’s okay. Daddy’s right here,” Adam says and places his hand on Emerson’s chest.

Emerson calms when Adam’s hand is on him and he takes Adam’s finger in his small hand. Adam smiles at his son.

“He’s a daddy’s boy,” Betty says to Adam.

Adam smiles, “Yeah, yeah he is.”

* * *

Everyday for the past week, Adam or Tommy have gotten to hold Emerson for an hour. Betty said it was good for him to have skin to skin contact, but Adam and Tommy didn’t pay much attention to what she was saying because they were too focused on their son. 

One day while Tommy was holding Emerson, Betty came over with an extra rocking chair and her ever present smile.

“Adam, if you would like to take a seat,” she says.

Adam looks up from Emerson and Tommy, and gives Betty a look of wonder. When he sees the other rocking chair, he smiles.

“Melanie’s turn?” Adam asks. He’s already unbuttoning his shirt.

“Yes sir, now come on little lady, come meet your daddy,” Betty says to the little girl.

Melanie makes a fuss at being picked up, but once she’s settled on Adam, she’s fine and goes back to sleeping like she was before she was disturbed. Adam can’t believe it. He’s holding his daughter, while Tommy is holding their son. It’s almost like they’re at home doing this.

“Do you want a picture?” Betty asks.

Adam looks up at her and smiles, “Sure.”

He hands her his phone once he gets the camera on and moves so Melanie can be seen. He smiles brightly and Betty takes the photo. She takes a couple more just to be safe, then hands Adam back his phone and he looks at the pictures. He smiles at each one then picks the one he likes the most and sets it as his background.

“We should send one out on twitter,” Tommy says.

“Are you sure? I don’t know if I’m ready to share them with the world,” Adam replies and holds Melanie closer.

“We’ve been hiding them for weeks now and I think it’s time we debut them. It’s only a couple of tweets about them and that’s it...oh and end with a tweet for privacy,” Tommy tells Adam. He’s not one to share personal details about his family, but he knows the fans would like to know what was going on.

Adam looks down at Melanie to see that she’s comfortable just staying on his chest, so he takes out his phone and quickly tweets out a picture of the four of them. He gives the names and the date the twins were born, then asks for privacy. He doesn’t mention anything more about them. He doesn’t want to give away every detail just yet.

As time went on, Emerson and Melanie were put back in their incubators leaving Adam and Tommy to sit by them as they slept. Around dinner time, Betty comes over to do her hourly check and smiles at how well Emerson and Melanie are doing with being held by their fathers.

“They look like they’re doing well. Hopefully we can start them on bottle feeding soon,” Betty says.

“Bottle feeding? Really? You think they’re ready?” Adam asks.

“Emerson might be ready sooner than Melanie of course, but we’ll have to see what the doctor says. He’s the one who makes all the final decisions,” Betty replies.

“Then after that they can come home?” Adam asks. He’s getting sick of the hospital.

Betty gives him a smile, “There’s more to it than just feeding from the bottle and breathing on their own. We’re taking it one day at a time.”

Adam sighs, “I know, but I’m so anxious to get out of here. I don’t know how much longer I can stand being here.”

Betty laughs, “I know, sweetie, I know...soon.”

* * *

Two days later Adam and Tommy are told that Emerson will start being bottle fed. They had a breast milk bank that they could get milk from or use formula. It was a quick decision that they’d use the breast milk and within the hour, Emerson was being fed his first bottle.

“Now support his head, yeah there you go... okay and now touch the nipple to his lips. He might not take it right away, but once he figures out he’s getting milk from it, he’ll take to it,” Betty instructs Tommy.

Tommy slowly moves the nipple on Emerson’s lips and Emerson opens his mouth to take it. At first Emerson doesn’t quite understand what’s going on, but once he catches on that he’s getting something out of it, he quickly sucks down the milk. Unfortunately, this makes the milk spill from the side of his mouth and he starts to cough.

“Woah, woah... okay, you’re okay,” Tommy says. He puts the bottle down on the table next to him and puts Emerson to his shoulder to help him quiet down.

Once settled, Tommy moves him again so he can finish the bottle. Emerson eats it down quickly like before and coughs it up again. The process of eating and coughing go on for the next half hour, but Tommy is patient and waits it out until the bottle is done.

“Well it looks like he liked it,” Betty comments, coming over to check.

“He coughed most of it up from eating too fast,” Tommy replies.

Betty chuckles, “Yep, that’s what happens the first few times, but once he figures out that he can eat slower, you’ll be fine.”

What Betty says is true, and over the next few feedings, Emerson gets better at not drinking too fast and he starts to keep most of it down. There are still times when he burps and spits up, but that’s all a part of having a baby.

Melanie gets to join her brother at feeding time three days later, and she is just like Emerson the first few times. Adam makes sure to cover his pants before he feeds her after the first incident that left more milk on his pants then in Melanie’s mouth.

They get the twins on a schedule, so that it’s easy to feed both of them together. Betty keeps a chart up between the twins to show their progress of feedings and their weight gain. The weight gain is slow, but steady and soon both are almost ready to go home.

* * *

“Now you have to be quiet, the babies will be sleeping,” Adam says to Landon as they walk into the NICU.

The doctor had given the okay to bring Landon to meet his brother and sister a few days prior, so now it was time to introduce all the kids to one another.

“I can be quiet, I do it all the time at school,” Landon replies.

Adam smiles, “I know you do, and you’re good at it.”

As they enter, Adam helps Landon wash his hands, then washes his own. Adam takes Landon’s hand and walks him down the middle aisle and stops when they get to where Melanie and Emerson are. Tommy is sitting in one of the rocking chairs holding Melanie. When he sees Landon, he smiles.

“Hey, buddy, how are you?” Tommy asks his son.

“Can I hold her?” Landon asks without answering Tommy’s question.

“I think that’d be okay, but you have to be very careful. She’s still really little and still has wires that are on her, so you have to be careful to not pull them off or mess them up. Okay?” Tommy tells him.

Landon nods and moves away from Adam to sit in the empty rocking chair. He waits as Tommy moves from his seat and brings Melanie over to him. Adam helps move the wires around, so they’re not in Landon’s way. Tommy makes sure Landon is supporting Melanie’s head before he removes his hands. Once Landon is holding his sister, Tommy moves away and smiles at the scene.

Landon is smiling down at Melanie who’s alert and looking up at the new person. She looks at Landon in awe and when he smiles, she smiles at him.

“She smiled at me!” Landon says, still smiling at his dads.

Adam takes out his phone and takes photos of the two of them together. He tweets it then puts his phone away.

When Melanie starts whining, Adam takes her from Landon and rocks her in his arms. She settles quickly and starts to fall asleep in his arms.

“Can I hold Em now?” Landon asks, looking up at Tommy.

Tommy looks over Emerson and sees him awake, “Yeah that’s cool, but let me get the nurse to help. Da is busy with Mel and I don’t want to do anything wrong when I get him out his bed.”

Landon waits quietly while Tommy and a nurse get Emerson out of his incubator. Once the wires were out of the way Tommy moves over to Landon and helps him take hold of the small baby. Landon tries to get Emerson to smile like Melanie did, but Emerson is having none of it and just frowns at his older brother.

“I don’t think he likes me,” Landon says.

Tommy chuckles, “He does like you. He just doesn’t know you yet.”

“But I’m his brother! He should know me,” Landon replies and pouts.

“Once he’s home he’ll know, but for now he’s still not sure who you are,” Tommy says.

“When are Em and Mel coming home?” Landon asks. He’s been asking the question almost every day since they were born.

“Soon, buddy, I promise,” Tommy replies. He doesn't know when they’ll be coming home, but he’s getting impatient like Landon.

* * *

Taking Emerson and Melanie home comes sooner rather than later and it excites Adam and Tommy. Adam starts planning out the twins going home outfits which makes Tommy roll his eyes, but he smiles at how happy Adam is about it. They plan a quiet getaway from the hospital that will have them going straight to their home where their families will be.

The day to go home comes and Adam’s dressing the twins in the outfits he’s picked out. He talks to each one about their family and home and he gets smiles from both when he tickles their tummies. 

Betty has made a banner that says “We’re going home!” and has hung it over Emerson and Melanie’s beds. All the nurses have signed it with wishes of good luck. Tommy takes it down, so they can keep it to put in the nursery when they get home.

“All ready?” Betty asks, looking at the twins who are drowning in their car seats.

“I think so,” Adam replies.

“We’ll miss you,” Betty replies, and she’s got a tear in her eye.

“I’ll miss you, too,” Adam says, and puts an arm around Betty.

“I was talking to the twins, not you,” Betty jokes, and gives Adam a wink.

Adam chuckles. He knows that he and Tommy may have been pains in the ass at times, but at the end of the day, Betty was always there to be a shoulder to lean on and to cry to if things had gotten hard.

“We ready?” Tommy asks, coming up to Adam and Betty.

“Yep, let’s get out of here,” Adam replies.

Tommy smiles and goes over to the twins. He puts Melanie’s heart monitor machine bag over his shoulder and picks up the car seat with his daughter in it. He hates that both of the twins have to keep a heart monitor on at all times because they still stop breathing, but he knows that they’ll grow out of it as time goes by.

Adam goes and picks up Emerson’s car seat and moves to take Tommy’s hand. He smiles and leans down to his husband. He can’t believe that only a few weeks ago they were starting their time in the NICU and now they’re going home.

The family walks out of the NICU with Betty following behind and when they arrive at the entrance to the hospital, their car is there waiting. Tommy moves around the car to put Melanie in as Adam does the same with Emerson.

“You have everything?” Betty asks even though she knows they do. She always gets that way when one of her patients leave. It’s hard after weeks and weeks of taking care of a child to see them leave.

Adam smiles at her, “We do... and thank you. For everything. You’ve been amazing to us while we were here.”

Betty smiles as well, “It’s all in my job, sweetie.”

Adam pulls her into a hug and gives her a kiss on the cheek. When he pulls away, he smiles at her once more then gets in the car. 

Tommy quickly hugs and thanks Betty as well then gets in the car to head home. He smiles at the fact that they’re now a complete family. They’ve had a tough journey to where they are, but in the end, it was worth every minute of it.

**Epilogue**

The family and friends of Adam and Tommy were out in the yard celebrating the first birthday of Emerson and Melanie. It was only a short time ago that the twins were born thirty weeks premature and their little lives started. Adam looks out and sees his mom holding his daughter, her granddaughter, while she talks to Terrence. He smiles when Terrence scoops up the little girl from Leila’s arms and swings here in the air making her laugh.

“Can you believe it? A year already,” Tommy says from behind Adam.

Adam turns and smiles at his husband. He’s been the rock of the family while the twins were in the NICU and through the months since they were home, “I can’t... where has the time gone?”

Tommy moves to Adam and hugs him. Adam wraps his arms around Tommy as well and hugs him back.

“I love you,” Tommy says.

“I love you, too,” Adam replies.

“Hey, are you two going to come join the party or just stand there being all mushy?” Neil asks from the doorway of the kitchen.

Adam rolls his eyes at his brother, “We’re coming.”

Tommy pulls away from Adam, but Adam catches his arm and gives him a kiss before he can escape.

“You better make that a promise for more later,” Tommy says once they break from the kiss.

Adam smiles and winks at him, “That’s only a taste of what’s to come.”

They walk into the backyard and smile when they see Betty holding both Melanie and Emerson. She has been a part of the twins’ lives since day one and without her they probably wouldn’t have survived and be as healthy as they would be. Adam goes over to her and takes Emerson out of Betty’s arm before he gives her a hug.

“I’m so glad you could come!” Adam says.

Betty smiles brightly, “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Tommy comes over and hugs the woman as well and he blows a raspberry on Melanie’s cheek, making the little girl laugh. She reaches out to him and he takes her from Betty’s arms.

“Can I get a picture of you and the kids? I want to put it up in the NICU graduate broad. All the others would love to see them now,” Betty says to Adam and Tommy.

“Sure, but let me get Landon first,” Adam replies, and turns to look for his older son.

Adam finds Landon is playing with Riff and he calls him over. Landon pouts and tries to say that he and Riff are in the middle of something, but Adam makes him come over to be in the picture. Landon rolls his eyes and gets up from his spot on the grass and walks over to his father.

Adam moves Landon to stand front of him and Tommy and tells him smile for the camera. Betty takes the photo. She takes a couple more just because she can then puts her camera away. Dia starts talking to Betty and it leaves Adam and Tommy to themselves for a moment.

Adam takes a step back to look and everyone who’s there. He can’t believe that only a year ago this was a scary day that ended with two of the best gifts that they could’ve ever asked for.

End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pictures of what I feel Emerson and Melanie look like: http://asherly89.livejournal.com/81390.html
> 
> These aren't my pictures, just pictures I found on google. PLEASE DO NOT REPOST THESE ANYWHERE. Thank you!


End file.
